Abstract
BackgroundBlepharis constitutes an important part of the vegetation of the Jordanian arid and semi-arid regions, yet whether one or more species of this genus occurs in the Jordanian area is uncertain. We addressed this question by assessing morphological characters and testing Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers from three populations of Blepharis: two northern (lower slopes of Kufranjah valley and the Dead Sea region) and one southern (Wadi al Yutm).ResultsShoots from randomly chosen Blepharis plants were harvested from each of the three populations for morphological and molecular analyses. In the northern populations, spikes were lax and bract width was significantly shorter than length of the longest lateral spine compared to the southern population. A multivariate linear discriminant analysis distinguished the northern populations from the southern one by internode length, bract width, longest lateral spine length, and bract width to spine length ratio. The ISSR analysis revealed that 44 markers across eight primers were polymorphic with major allele frequency of 83.6% and an average of 5.5 polymorphic markers per primer. The genetic resemblance among individuals ranged from 0.27 to 0.96. The three Blepharis populations were accordingly clustered into two distinct groups, similar to the analysis of morphological differences and corresponding with the “northern” and “southern” population designations.ConclusionsOur results strongly indicate the occurrence of two discrete Blepharis species in Jordan and reject the hypothesis that the genus is represented by only one species. We propose that the Blepharis species in Jordan are B. attenutata Napper (represented by the northern populations) and B. ciliaris (L.) B. L. Burtt (represented by the southern population). These findings are important for informing and revising floristic work within the region and an updated key has been included in our findings.
Highlights
Blepharis constitutes an important part of the vegetation of the Jordanian arid and semi-arid regions, yet whether one or more species of this genus occurs in the Jordanian area is uncertain
Other features from Blepharis individuals collected at the three sites in this study identified populations with particular morphological characters corresponding to two species outlined by Feinbrun-Dothan (1978)
Superficially similar, our results strongly suggest the presence of two Blepharis species in Jordan: B. attenuata occurring in the northern region and B. ciliaris occurring in the southern region
Summary
Blepharis constitutes an important part of the vegetation of the Jordanian arid and semi-arid regions, yet whether one or more species of this genus occurs in the Jordanian area is uncertain. We addressed this question by assessing morphological characters and testing Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers from three popula‐ tions of Blepharis: two northern (lower slopes of Kufranjah valley and the Dead Sea region) and one southern (Wadi al Yutm). In the Middle East region, two species of Blepharis were originally recorded and described in regional floras, and both were regarded as distinct These included B. attenuata Napper and B. ciliaris (L.) B. Based largely on assessments of herbarium materials, Vollesen (2000) argued that B. attenuata is the sole member that migrated north and colonized the desert areas of Egypt, Israel and West bank, and Jordan. Vollesen (2000) considered B. attenuata as the only species in the Acantheae that grows below the sea-level
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