Re: _Drosera_ evolution (long)

john_p (john_p@icr.ac.uk)
Mon, 12 Jun 95 15:01:47 +0100

>
I have followed the evolutionary discussions for the past few weeks from
afar and found it both interesting and enjoyable. However enough is enough, I
can accept the Woolly mammoths as fact but when theoriues start to get blurred
I begin to jump up and down.

To give two examples:

> Flowers can only be important in terms of evolution in species which
> produce seed sexually.

Flowers are only important for sexual reproduction and sexual reproduction is
the only way in which genetic variation and hence evolution can occur at the
rate it does.
Also, as far as I know no-one has ever changed suggested that seed result from
asexual reproduction.

>

>
> >The ancestral Drosera in Australia
> >surely didn't know their habitats were shrinking and that they faced
> >almost certain extinction if they didn't adapt to the new conditions.

Are we talking about Lamark or Darwin. Under Darwinian theory plants do not
adapt but are selected by virtue of environmental pressures it is a passive
process. The less constant the environment the more likely variation is to
occur.

Keep up the good work

John Peacock (john_p@icr.ac.uk)