Morphological differentiation of populations of Bolboschoenus taxa in Serbia

Abstract

The main goal of this study was to determine species diversity of genus Bolboschoenus in Serbia, based on revision of herbarium specimens and new field research, as well as to perform morphometric analyses on living material collected in natural habitats. The morphometric study was carried out on 32 populations (606 individuals × 16 morphological quantitative characters of the inflorescence and achenes) collected in southeastern Serbia. The morphometric data were analyzed using standard univariate (Descriptive, Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests) and multivariate (principal component analysis, canonical discriminant analysis and UPGMA classification) analyses. Detailed information on the distribution of four Bolboschoenus species is presented. The results of statistical analyses indicated that the morphological characters of the achenes were more useful for differentiating the species than the morphological characters of the inflorescences. The greatest differentiation in Bolboschoenus species was connected by the following characters: achene length, achene width, beak length, width of the exocarp on the lateral side and width of the exocarp on the ventral side. Significant inter-population morphological variability of B. glaucus was confirmed and four morphological groups of B. glaucus populations were recognized. The possibility of describing new morphotypes of B. glaucus is discussed.