Morphometric analysis of Polish members of the Potentilla subsect. Collinae in Poland

Abstract

Methods of numerical taxonomy, i.e. Cluster Analysis, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Discriminant Function (DF) and Correspondence Analysis (CA), have been used to analyse 132 Operational Taxonomic Units of Potentilla subsect. Collinae. Among 53 morphological characters (20 quantitative and 33 qualitative), the most useful appeared following: bent inflorescence, flower diameter, width of epicalyx segments, length and width of petal, length ratio of calyx to petals, length ratio of calyx to epicalyx segments, shape of carpel style, presence of basal leaves during flowering, number of leaflets on basal leaves, upper and lower surfaces of leaf blades, pattern of pubescence of calyx, nervation of leaves as well as number and size of teeth of the central leaflet. The following taxa were distinguished in the investigated subsection: P. collina Wibel s.str.; P. thyrsiflora Hulsen ex Zimmeter; P. silesiaca R. Uechtr.; P. wimannania Gunther et Schummel; P. leucopolitana P.J. Mull.; P. karoi R. Uechtr. ex Zimmeter; P. schultzii P.J. Mull. ex F. W. Schultz; P. koernickei R. Uechtr. ex Zimmeter; P. leucopolitanoides Blocki; P. ×sholziana Callier; P. leucopolitana P.J. Muller × P. incana P. Gaertner, B. Meyer & Scherb.); P. × tynieckii Blocki (P. argentea L. × P. leucopolitana P.J. Mull.).