Intra- and interpopulation variability and taxonomic status of Berberis croatica Horvat

Morphological and anatomical traits of Berberis croatica Horvat that would facilitate its separation from the two related taxa, B. aetnensis C. Presl and B. vulgaris L., and their ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacers of nuclear ribosomal DNA) relationships were analyzed. Results show that B. croatica d...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant biosystems 2009-03, Vol.143 (1), p.40-46
Main Authors: Karlović, K., Kremer, D., Liber, Z., šatović, Z., Vršek, I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anatomy
Berberis aetnensis
Berberis croatica
Berberis vulgaris
Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS)
morphology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Morphological and anatomical traits of Berberis croatica Horvat that would facilitate its separation from the two related taxa, B. aetnensis C. Presl and B. vulgaris L., and their ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacers of nuclear ribosomal DNA) relationships were analyzed. Results show that B. croatica differs from the two related taxa in the following characteristics: plant height, blade width, petiole length, internode length, number of stomata on adaxial and abaxial leaf side, total number of stomata per leaf as well as length of the guard cells and of the stomatal pore on the abaxial epidermis. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) show that 24% of the total variance of investigated morpho-anatomical traits was attributable to variability among species. Phenotypic differentiation of species and populations was evident in all of the investigated taxa. Southern populations of B. croatica grouped with the populations of B. aetnensis with whom they proved to be highly similar. ITS sequence analysis did not separate B. aetnensis, B. croatica and B. vulgaris. The nature of distinctive morpho-anatomical traits combined with the lack of ITS differences suggests an intraspecies taxonomic rank for B. croatica.
ISSN:1126-3504
1724-5575
DOI:10.1080/11263500802633279