“…Numerous studies of plants (and animals) have recorded reduced fitness in small populations in nature and when individuals from small populations are raised in a common environment (Menges, 1991;Oostermeijer et al, 1994;Heschel and Paige, 1995;Fischer and Matthies, 1998;Morgan, 1999;Fischer et al, 2000a;KĂ©ry et al, 2000;Luijten et al, 2000;Schmidt and Jensen, 2000;Mavraganis and Eckert, 2001;Jacquemyn et al, 2002;Paschke et al, 2002;Severns, 2003;Vergeer et al, 2003;Brys et al, 2004). There are three likely genetic causes for reduced fitness of plants from smaller populations.…”