Morphological Variations and Morphometry in the Genus Plantago

Abstract

Morphology and morphometry of stems, leaves, inflorescence, flowers and fruits were studied in 20 species of Plantago (Plantaginaceae), namely P. afra L., P. albicans L., P. amplexicaulis Cav., P. arenaria Waldst. & Kit., P. ciliata Desf., P. commutata Guss., P. coronopus L., P. crassifolia Forssk., P. crypsoides Boiss., P. cylindrical Forssk., P. exigua Murray., P. lagopus L., P. lanceolata L., P. macrorhiza Poir., P. major L., P. notata Lag., P. ovata Forssk., P. phaeostoma Boiss. & Heldr., P. sinaica (Barn.) Decne and P. squarrosa Murray. Phenetic relationships of these species were established based on UPGMA-clustering method for 72 selected characters by using Jaccard coefficient of the NTSYS-pc 2.2 program. The produced data were confirmed by measuring the phenogram distortion from its relevant data matrix based on the cophenetic (ultrametric) correlation coefficient (r). These data were useful in providing more information about the taxonomic relationships of the studied species.