Species and Evolution in Clonal Organisms-Introduction

Six papers presented in the symposium follow in this issue, bolstered by the addition of material derived from peer reviews plus discussion at the symposium itself. With four of the six papers dealing with plants, we feel that Systematic Botany is an appropriate outlet for this topic of general biological interest. The goal of this introduction is to set the stage by introducing three major issues that are common to all papers. We will first briefly review competing species concepts, and the expected patterns of species distinctness. We will then consider mechanisms possibly responsible for causing integration and cohesion of species. Finally, we will discuss what «speciation» might be under these different concepts of species and under various possible integrating mechanisms