FLORAL PIGMENTATION STUDIES IN THE GENUS GOSSYPIUM II CHEMOTAXONOMIC ANALYSIS OF DIPLOID GOSSYPIUM SPECIES

The chromatographic pigment arrays of nine diploid species (G. arboreum, G. anomalum, G. herbaceum, G. stocksii, G. sturtii, G. thurberi, G. gossypioides, G. raimondii and G. klotzschianum) were studied. Among the Old World cottons, G. sturtii of Australia was very different from the species analyzed. The two species of the Herbacea section (G. herbaceum and G. arboreum) were found to have very similar pigment arrays. Both G. anomalum and G. stocksii were more like the Herbacea species than any other species in the genus, but both G. anomalum and G. stocksii had unique pigment characteristics. Although the evidence obtained so far from pigmentation patterns suggests that some pairs of species are closely related, the pigment arrays do not support the classification of the New World diploids into more than one section. From analysis of pigments of interspecific hybrids and their parents, it was found that with a hybrid and one parent species the pigment array of the other parent species could be predicted. Using this approach, the pigment arrays of three New World diploid species were predicted.