Meetings of the Royal Botanical Society of The Netherlands

Recently research was started on the functioning and population dynamics of species that are endangered in the Netherlands. In the project we focus on the Dutch Gentiana and Gentianella species. The study was started with the perennial herb Gentiana pneumonanthe, and successively the other Dutch species were included: the very rare, perennial G. cruciata and the Gentianella species amarella, campestris, germanica (all behaving as annuals and/or biennials) and the extremely rare perennial G. ciliata. If gene flow is limited or even absent so that variation decreases and inbreeding takes place, fitness is negatively influenced. This is the very problem many endangered species are presently facing.