Abstract
The Sabina section is one of the three groups in the Juniperus genus and the most diverse. The variability of Mediterranean junipers from the Sabina section is related to their Tertiary and Pleistocene migrations and long-term isolations. Their contemporary taxonomic and geographic diversity was influenced by important events such as the migration of continents, the disappearance of Tethys, orogenic movements or the Messinian salinity crisis. The results of morphological measurements of seed cones, seeds and branchlets with leaves of 19 populations of Juniperus phoenicea complex, J. excelsa s.s., J. thurifera subsp. thurifera and subs. africana, J. foetidissima and J. sabina var. sabina and var. balkanensis were statistically compiled using univariate statistics and multivariate analysis. The most important characters differentiating the populations within the taxa were the thickness of the branchlet and the cone diameter, while between the taxa the ratio of cone diameter to the width of the seeds and the number of seeds per cone were used for speciation. J. phoenicea complex is distinguished from the other studied taxa by the greatest number of characters. J. foetidissima, J. sabina var. sabina and J. canariensis are characterized by the highest variability of morphological characters, while J. excelsa and J. sabina var. balkanensis – the lowest. The studies confirmed the ancient nature of the J. phoenicea complex in relation to other taxa from the Sabina section, as a result of an earlier detachment from the ancestor, and no loss of variability due to the effects of colonization and isolation in J. canariensis. In addition, the similarity of J. sabina and J. thurifera was demonstrated, which would confirm the descent from a common ancestor and similar migration routes from the center of Europe towards the Iberian Peninsula, as well as further differentiation of J. thurifera into subspecies caused by isolation due to the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar. The distinctiveness of J. foetidissima from all the other analyzed taxa was also confirmed, and some morphological similarity was shown, proving the original character of J. excelsa s.s. and its similarity to the J. phoenicea complex in this respect.
Highlights
Juniperus is the second most diverse genus of all the coniferous plants and the largest of the 30 members of the Cupressaceae family
The values of the variation coefficient (VC) for most characters oscillate between 5.8% to 45.2%
All of the morphological characters of seed cones, seeds and shoots turned out to be important in previous studies on individual taxa of Juniperus (Mazur et al 2004, 2018; Marcysiak et al 2007; Douaihy et al 2012; Boratyński et al 2013) and were used to analyze the morphological variation in the Sabina section
Summary
Juniperus is the second most diverse genus of all the coniferous plants and the largest of the 30 members of the Cupressaceae family. It includes about 75 species (Farjon 2005; Adams 2014) of evergreen trees and shrubs of different heights and habitats (Zohary 1973; Browicz 1982; Adams 2014). The history of the Juniperus was further influenced by the Pliocene climate cooling, Pleistocene cyclic glaciations, as well as human activities in recent centuries and competition with other species (Jimenez et al 2003). The emergence of geographically isolated varieties, subspecies, and even species was confirmed, e.g., in the cases of J. thurifera s.lat. (Boratyński et al 2013) and J. phoenicea s.lat. (Mazur et al 2010, 2018; Romo et al 2019)
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