The randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique followed by analysis
of molecular variance (AMOVA) was used to determine the level of variation
within and between commercial plantations of
Banksia coccinea R.Br. and
B. menziesii R.Br. in South Australia and natural
populations in Western Australia. For B. coccinea, the
majority of variation was within populations (66.1%), while between all
populations accounted for 20.8%. The variation between cultivated and
natural populations was 13.2%. There was close clustering between the
cultivated populations, which appeared to be most closely related to the
inland natural populations. In contrast, the variation between cultivated and
natural populations for B. menziesii was 0.4%
with the majority of the variation within populations (93.2%) and
6.4% between all populations. The cultivated and natural populations
formed a single cohesive cluster. These data indicate that the full range of
natural genetic diversity of B. menziesii appears to
occur in the cultivated plantations, but this was not the case for
B. coccinea.