Abstract
<p>The goal of the study was to check if the shape-describing characters, calculated as ratios of the morphological measured traits are more stable, compared to the latter, and can be treated as independent on environmental conditions. The test was based on the example of leaves of <em>Salix herbacea </em>and <em>Betula nana</em>. The individuals of the two populations of <em>S. herbacea </em>from Tatra Mts. were divided into two groups: with bigger and smaller leaves. The two populations of <em>B</em><em>. nana </em>came from different substrata: the first one, collected from the mire on the lower altitude, had bigger leaves, and the second, collected from the granite plateau and higher altitude, had smaller leaves.</p><p>For both species, the measured traits were generally more variable than the ratios calculated on their basis, as expressed by the variation coefficients. The results of Students' t-test analyses showed statistically significant differences between the two groups of <em>S. herbacea </em>and the two populations of <em>B. nana </em>with respect to almost all the measured characters, and no such differences for the calculated traits, reflecting the leaf shape.</p><p>As the differentiation of the leaf size was probably bound to the environmental factors, the lack of the dependence of the leaf shape on the leaf size could lead to a conclusion of independence of the leaf shape on the environment conditions.</p>
Highlights
Morphological traits are basic for the description of a plant
The goal of the present study is to test whether the shapedescribing characters are more stable and can be treated as independent on environment when compared to measured traits, on the example of leaves
Within the two studied populations of Salix herbacea in the Tatras, the form macrophylla was not found, the individuals created two distinct groups. Their values of the leaf length and width were within the limits described in European and local floras [18,26,40]
Summary
Morphological traits are basic for the description of a plant. Their role has been decreasing in the face of rapid development of molecular biology and modern methods of DNA analysis, treated as more reliable and more sensitive, especially for reflecting the intra- and inter-populational diversity [1,2]. Morphological characters remain important, as they are crucial for the identification of taxa. Various kinds of morphological features, concerning both vegetative and generative organs, are still used in taxonomic studies and analysis of diversity [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. The proposed solution is to use synthetic characters, describing rather the shape of the plant structures, than the size, being regarded as much more stable [5]
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