Morphological and karyological relationship within Alpine-Dinaric populations of the genus Iris L., Pallidae series (A. Kern.) Trinajstić (Iridaceae)

Abstract

The relationships within the Alpine-Dinaric and cultivated populations of the genus Iris, Pallidae series, have been analysed by methods of multivariate statistics (Cluster, PCA and MST analyses). The bases for multivariate analyses were seven morphological characteristics (stem length, length of largest leaf, greatest width of the largest leaf, length of smallest leaf, greatest width of the smallest leaf, the number of leaves and the number of flowers) and relative chromosome length for 12 chromosome pairs. In spite of two similar looking isolated populations (Stara Baška and Konavle), the presence of four groups within the series was established, to which a species status can be ascribed: I. pallida Lam. separated as a horticultural species, /. cengialti Ambr. - endemic in Alpine region, /. illyrica Tomm. - endemic to the northern Adriatic Littoral and I. pseudopallida Trinajstić - endemic to the southern Adriatic Littoral. To differentiate the established groups, in PCA analysis the most significant features turned out to be: relative chromosome length of eleventh and tenth chromosome pairs, the length of the smallest leaf, relative chromosome length of the seventh chromosome pair and length of the stem.