Karyotypes of 14 populations including eight species of the genus Lobelia were studied using root tip mitotic metaphases. All populations were tetraploid with 2n = 28 chromosomes. The chromosome base number x = 7 was confirmed for the genus. Karyotype analysis showed that chromosome size varied from 1.05 µm to 2.02 µm with predominance of M and SM chromosome types. The karyotypes were similar among themselves with small intra- and interspecific variations on the size of haploid sets, symmetry indexes and centromere position of some chromosome pairs. These results showed that karyotypes of Brazilian lobelias of the subgenus Tupa were probably due to polyploidy associated with chromosomal rearrangements probably in small chromatin segments.
Lobelia; Campanulaceae; chromosomes; Feulgen; karyotype evolution
