Genome Size and Descriptors of Leaf Morphology as Indicators of Hybridization in Colombian cultigens of coca Erythroxylum spp

Recent biochemical and morphological data suggests that coca crops in Colombia are increasingly composed of hybrids coming from traditionally cultivated varieties of Erythroxylum coca and Erythroxylum novogranatense. Previous studies can not discriminate these cultigens on the basis of linear measurements of leaf morphology. The current study aims at measuring quantifiable differences in Fourier Elliptic Descriptors of leaf morphology and genome sizes among collected Colombian cultigens. Our current hypothesis is that hybrids must show intermediate morphologies and genome sizes of the parental varieties, and that these variables could be correlated. Given this scenario genome size and leaf morphology could be used as indicators of hybridization in cultivated coca populations, and used for the identification of further collected material. However no informative differences of leaf morphology or genome size were found between studied cultigens.