Morphological variation of Juniperus oxycedrus subsp. macrocarpa (Cupressaceae) in three Italian localities

Małgorzata Klimko,Adam Boratyński,Katarzyna Marcysiak,Krystyna Boratyńska

doi:10.5586/asbp.2004.016

Abstract

The intra- and interpopulational geographic variation of three distant populations of <em>J. oxycedrus </em>subsp. <em>macrocarpa </em>was examined biometrically on the basis of morphological key-characters of needles, seeds and cones. The shortest Euclidean distances were used in the agglomerative grouping of closest neighbourhood and discrimination analysis with principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to verify the south-north differentiation of the taxon in Italy. Most of the cone and seed dimensional characters are correlated. No significant correlations were found between cone and needle characters. The sampled populations differ only insignificantly from one another, while the intrapopulational variation is slightly higher. Cone length as well as seed number, width and thickness were significantly correlated with geographic latitude, while the other four characters are not. Differences in cone shape were observed between individuals, so that several morphotypes can be distinguished.

Highlights

Juniperus oxycedrus L. belongs to the section Oxycedrus of the genus Juniperus
Three maritime populations of Juniperus oxycedrus subsp. macrocarpa in Italy were sampled in September 2001 (Fig. 1)
The eight morphological characters and three ratios were examined to determine the variation of every individual (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Juniperus oxycedrus L. belongs to the section Oxycedrus of the genus Juniperus. It is a variable species with three subspecies (Greuter et al 1984) that differ in habit, cone size and needle width (Amaral Franco 1963, 1964, 1968, 1986; Lebreton et al 1991). Lin. Soc., Bot. 16: 670 (1878)], sometimes treated as an independent species J. macrocarpa Sibth. 2: 263 (1816)] (Boratyñski et al 1992; Browicz 1996; Adams 2000) Prodr. 2: 263 (1816)] (Boratyñski et al 1992; Browicz 1996; Adams 2000)

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Conclusion