Contribution to the taxonomy of Turkish Scorzonera (Asteraceae) taxa based on vegetative anatomy
10 March 2016
Makbul, Serdar; Kamil, Coskuncelebi; Okur, Seda; Gültepe, MutluIn the present study, the general stem, root and leaf anatomical features of 59 Scorzonera L. s.l. (Asteraceae) taxa collected from Turkey are presented and evaluated by cluster and principal coordinate analysis. Numerical analyses based on 26 anatomical traits showed that arrangement of tracheal elements in the root, presence of cortical bundles, latex canals, secretory cells and aerenchyma in the stem and mesophyll are valuable for grouping the Scorzonera taxa under consideration. Additionally, dendorams infered from anatomical data were generally congruent with the traditional taxonomic classification of Scorzonera into three subgenera (Scorzonera L.,Podospermum DC., Pseudopodospermum (Lipsch. et Krasch.) Lipsch.). However present study also show that the examined species could not be identified if only based on internal morphology of root, stem and leaf but support to treat Podospermum as distict genera.