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Why do botanists disagree about the number of Cyrilla species?
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Ericales
Flowering rhododendron.
Botanists disagree about the number of species in the genus Cyrilla because of the plant's significant morphological variability. While some researchers classify the genus as containing multiple distinct species, others argue that these variations represent a single, widespread, and highly variable species known as C. racemiflora.1
This uncertainty highlights the challenges in plant taxonomy when distinguishing between environmental adaptations and true genetic divergence within the Cyrillaceae family.