XVI International Botanical Congess

Trifolium lemonii Wats. (Fabaceae) is restricted in range to four counties in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Starch gel electrophoresis was used to determine genotypes of 9 enzymes at 11 loci for 23 populations of T. lemmonii. Nine of 11 loci observed are polymorphic. The average number of alleles per locus ranges from 1.18 to 2.18, and the percentage of polymorphic loci ranges from 18.18% to 63.64%. The mean FST value for all loci, 0.257, indicates that most of the species' genetic variation is within, rather than among populations. With one exception, T. lemmonii can be separated by geographic region into two clusters of genetic similarity, those in and near Nevada having 94% similarity, and htose in Plumas County having 97% similarity. The clusters are 91% similar to each other. The mentioned earlier shows 87% similarity to the other populations.