Taxonomic relationships of Texas specimens of Digitaria ciliaris and Digitaria bicornis (Poaceae)

Numerical techniques were used to clarify the taxonomic relationships between two closely related grasses, Digitaria ciliaris and Digitaria bicornis. Principal component analysis illustrated distinct specimen clusters, whereas a correlation phenogram showed a distinct dissimilarity between the speci...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:SIDA, contributions to botany contributions to botany, 1981-04, Vol.9 (1), p.34-42
Main Authors: Webster, R.D, Hatch, S.L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological taxonomies
Bracts
Florets
Glumes
Nerves
Plant morphology
Population growth
Species populations
Spikelets
Taxa
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Numerical techniques were used to clarify the taxonomic relationships between two closely related grasses, Digitaria ciliaris and Digitaria bicornis. Principal component analysis illustrated distinct specimen clusters, whereas a correlation phenogram showed a distinct dissimilarity between the species and high degree of similarity among populations within the species. A multiple discriminant analysis procedure showed that there were no misclassifications of the specimens. Digitaria bicornis was found to have a shorter distance to the first lateral nerve on the lemma of the lower floret, a longer second glume, and a shorter first glume. Minor characters included a shorter main axis and a longer average rachis length. The length of the second glume, main axis, and rachis were characters previously not considered as taxonomically important. A nested analysis of variance showed these characters to have more than 70 percent of the measured morphological variation due to differences between species.
ISSN:0036-1488
2334-3273