CLONALITY AS A PART OF THE EVOLUTION PROCESS IN TARAXACUM

A review is presented of various ecological and population aspects of Taraxacum agamospermy. Agamospermy is compared with vegetative clonality, the former differing in capability to generate variation, seed dispersal and often long evolutionary history. Clonal diversity of agamospermous taxa ranges from almost absolute uniclonality to high diversity of clones. Multiclonality is suggested to represent one of agamospecies' population characteristics. Biological individuality of clones allows coexistence of clones at a locality. Competition and other factors influencing number of clones at a locality are discussed. Geographical and ecological distributions of agamospermous and sexual Taraxacum taxa are evaluated, their coexistence and gene flow are addressed, and a hypothesis is presented concerning the population condition in mixed stands of sexual and asexual Taraxaca. Lastly, agamospermy is shown to significantly reduce recombination processes; it should not be considered an absolute evolutionary ''blind alley''.