Endemic plant species richness of Surkhondaryo province, Uzbekistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Tian Shan and Pamir-Alay mountains of Central Asia are generally regarded as the primary center of diversity of Tulipa species, but a comparative morphological description of Central Asian Tulipa species is still lacking. To fill the existing gap, we studied 48 Tulipa species found in Central Asia plus one outgroup (Erythronium caucasicum) for 24 morphological characters of bulbs, leaves, stems and flowers. The obtained data matrix was subjected to a cladistic analysis. Although bootstrap values were low, the morphology-based tree more or less corresponded to previous classifications, except for the placement of sect. Clusianae and T. butkovii.