Tepal macro and micro- morphological study of Iranian Anemone L. and Pulsatilla Mill. (Ranunculaceae)

The genera Anemone L. and Pulsatilla Mill. belong to the tribe Anemoneae, and the family Ranunculaceae. The genus Anemone has ۱۵۰ species around the world and the genus Pulsatilla has ۳۵ species which are spread in Europe and Asia. Iran is the border for the distribution region of various Anemone species, and, it is the area where the European and Asian taxa are met. Therefore, the study of these two genera in Iran is extremely important. Furthermore, such study can classify the Pulsatilla (P. albana) species in Iran, which has been an arguing topic among the researchers. Some researchers believe that this species belongs to Pulsatilla genus, and some other researchers categorize it as one of the Anemone species. In this study, ۱۸ species which belong to ۹ taxa of these genera are studied by their tepal macro and micro-morphological features to reveal the importance of these characteristics in identifying the taxa of these genera. In order to increase the accuracy of the results, microscopic studies are performed in addition to macroscopic investigations using the scanning electronic microscope (SEM). Several features are studied, including the size, the shape, the number, the color and the tip of tepals, the size and the shape of trichome base, epidermal pattern, and, the existence or the lack of stoma. Considering the tepal shape, three different shapes are observed which are obovate, ovate and Linear- Oblong. Considering the epidermal pattern, five types are identified which are striate, rugose, highly rugose, reticulate and scale-shaped. The tepal colors are observed to be yellow, white, purple and blue. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), features such as the width, color and shape of the tepal, epidermal pattern and tricome density demonstrate the most distinctive characteristics. In the phenogram, depicted by IBM SPSS Statistics software, separation of the P. albana from Anemone species is completely evident. Furthermore, the adopted features are capable of distinguishing the species, and, even the other varieties.

کلیدواژه ها:

Epidermal pattern ، Tepal Shape ، SEM ، Taxon