engleski

Morphometry of Festuca bosniaca Kumm. et Sendtn. (Poaceae) and related species

The genus Festuca L. (Poaceae) comprises perennial grasses with leaf blades mostly rolled or conduplicate ; inflorescence in form of a panicle composed of two- to several-flowered spikelets ; with specific upper glume, lemma and awn morphology. Festuca bosniaca and its closely related species within F. varia complex occupy large area and diverse habitats in southern Europe, thus exhibiting a variety of morphological characters in leaf and panicle morphology. Total of 112 individuals divided through 34 populations representing seven species (F. adamovicii, F. bosniaca, F. calva, F. cyllenica, F. eskia, F. varia and F. versicolor) were collected over the Balkan and the Apennine Peninsulas and the Alps. Most important diagnostic morphometric characters (anatomical and habitus) considering leaf and panicle segment were measured. Quantitative morphometric characters between closely related species were examined with exploratory data analysis and ANOVA, Tukey post hoc and Kruskal- Wallis were performed in order to obtain significant (p<0.001) characters within the dataset. This process generated ten characters used in subsequent PCA analysis. Additionally, we performed RDA to test morphometric multivariate variation in response to explanatory environmental and geographical data. Our results showed very little or no species-specific discriminatory characters, concluding that taxonomic identification based solely on morphology remains very challenging. Nevertheless, combined morphometry with environmental and geographical variables showed differences in correlation of some phenotypes (e.g. F. versicolor) with geography and environmental conditions.

morphometry ; Festuca

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