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Why do plants produce so many hybrids? I have read that they are the largest kingdom of organisms to do so. Does this have something to do with polyploidy events?

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    $\begingroup$ Might be a bit related $\endgroup$
    – Remi.b
    Apr 16, 2015 at 21:08

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Yes, it has very much to do with the poliploidy events. Specifically if you look at the grasses, most grasses that are diploid (eg., AA, BB), cannot hybridize, but in some rare events when they form polyploid (AAAA, BBBB), they can readily hybridize to form fertile progenies (AABB).

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    $\begingroup$ Do you have a citation for this claim? $\endgroup$
    – March Ho
    Apr 21, 2015 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ I don't have the citation, but I recently attended a talk by Dr. Kellogg, who talked about this. I think her paper talks about it briefly. $\endgroup$
    – Arun Seetharam
    Apr 21, 2015 at 17:12
  • $\begingroup$ I found no evidence to your claims in the paper you linked. thus -1, I'll revoke if you can point me to it. $\endgroup$
    – Nandor Poka
    Apr 21, 2015 at 20:23

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