Vaccinium constablaei A.Gray

As yet almost no work has been done on the
cytogenetics of the material from this area. However,
one item is important. In several areas — as at
Gregory Bald — these forms make distributional contact
with V. hirsutum. This is known to be a tetraploid and
in experimental work has been demonstrated to be intern-
fertile with other tetraploids. However, I was unable
to find the slightest evidence that the two had made
even the expected hybrids where they occupied the
same territory. Hence, I have come to the conclusion
— in advance of the data — that at least the bulk of
the material in the Great ¿^mokies is hexaploid. Further-
more, certain areas have populations which closely match
the known hexaploid population on Grandfather Mt. There
is, however, one item which might be noted. The general
appearance of the high-bush material in the Smokies
is tends more to be " simulatoid" than "altomontanoid."
I think that, in such isolated areas we logically can
expect this type of segregation. As yet, 1 have not
seen a single plant in the Smokies which I would refer
to altomontanum. One of the spurs of LeConte has
a fair amount of ”altomontanoid" material, but it is
all three to six feet high and from essentially mono-
podial or" clTaapw plants. If, in the future, some of
this materialX proves to be tetraploid, then I will take
the view that altomontanum was once present, but has
been hybridized almost out of existence. This statement
applies only to the northeastern part of the Smokies
where hirsutum is not present. In the southwestern part
it looks rather much like a hexaploid series; in fact,
as I studied this material again in June 1942 - after
having worked the Grandfather Mt. area in 1941 — the
similarity was most marked.
W.H.Camp. August, 1942.
DET. W. H. CAMP, 1939
blueberries
of
the
Great
Smokies
Note
the
high
bush
on
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Boundary between TENNESSEE and NORTH CAROLINA
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS, 1986
W. H. Camp No. /¿ft (with Lane Barksdale)'	July, 1
02543237