Vegetative morphological study of selected species of genera Kalanchoe Adans. and Bryophyllum Salisb. (subfamily Kalanchoideae) from South Western Nigeria

Abstract

A qualitative and quantitative morphological study of the three species of Bryophyllum and two Kalanchoe species in the subfamily Kalanchoideae was carried out to find out characters that may be useful in the identification, classification and also to solve some taxonomic problems within the subfamily Kalanchoideae. Vegetative parts from the various species were collected and subjected to morphological studies. Both qualitative and quantitative characters were recorded. Quantitative data were subjected to the least significance difference test (LSD), single linkage cluster analysis (SLCA) and principal components analysis (PCA). Unifying and diagnostic characters that are of taxonomic importance were recorded. The unifying characters propose that two genera in the Subfamily Kalanchoideae should be merged into a genus Kalanchoe with sections or subgenera under it.