Apomixis in Arnica montana?

The medicinal plant mountain arnica (Arnica montana) has been declining throughout its Central European range for several decades. Its reproductive system may play a role in this decline: mountain arnica is considered self-incompatible, but can reproduce vegetatively by growing clonal daughter rosettes. Still, there are also reports of irregular meiosis in the species’ flowers, so that seed formation takes place without fertilization. This process is called apomixis.

Through preparation and microscopy of mountain arnica flower heads, we want to find out the frequency of apomixis in the studied plants. Work on this project will be in close collaboration with the Structural and Functional Plant Diversity group.

• methods: sample preparation, microtome sections, staining, light microscopy

• supervision: Dr. Katja Reichel, Prof. Dr. Julien Bachelier