DNA fingerprinting supports notions of clonality in a rare mallee, Eucalyptus argutifolia

DNA fingerprinting was used to test for genetic variation within putative clones of Eucalyptus argutifolia, a rare multistemmed (mallee) species endemic to Western Australia. Hybridization of the M13 repeat sequence to HaeIII digested DNA samples was able to discriminate between seedlings from the same maternal plant, demonstrating the capability of this probe in detecting different individuals of this species. Each of the putative clones yielded a unique banding pattern, but no variation was found within clones. These results are consistent with the notion of clonality in E. argutifolia and reaf-firm that populations are likely to contain considerably fewer individuals than originally anticipated.