A multivariate morphometric analysis of diagnostic traits in southern Italy and Sicily pubescent oaks
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A multivariate morphometric analysis of diagnostic traits in southern Italy and Sicily pubescent oaks Romeo Di Pietro & Antonio Luca Conte & Piera Di Marzio & Lorenzo Gianguzzi & Giovanni Spampinato & Orazio Caldarella & Paola Fortini
Received: 28 December 2019 / Revised: 13 August 2020 / Accepted: 16 September 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Species identification within the species complex of Q. pubescens is a well-known taxonomic challenge among European botanists. Some of the specific pubescent oak binomials currently accepted in various European floras and checklists were originally described in Sicily and southern Calabria. As a consequence, several species belonging to the pubescent oaks group (Q. pubescens, Q. amplifolia, Q. congesta, Q. dalechampii, Q. leptobalana and Q. virgiliana) are reported in the taxonomic and phytosociological literature. To verify whether it was possible to associate a diverse set of morphological characters with each of these different taxa, thirteen natural populations of pubescent oak from Sicily and southern Calabria were sampled. A total of 391 trees, 3,887 leaves and 1,047 Supplementary Information The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-020-09378-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. R. Di Pietro (*) Department PDTA, University of Rome Sapienza, 00196 Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected] A. L. Conte : P. Di Marzio : P. Fortini Department of Bioscience and Territory, University of Molise, 86090 Pesche (IS), Italy L. Gianguzzi : O. Caldarella Department of Scienze Agrarie e Forestali, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy G. Spampinato Department of AGRARIA, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy
fruits were collected. Overall, 28 morphological characters of oak leaves and fruits were statistically analysed using univariate and multivariate procedures. The results showed that neither the groups of morphological diversity identified by cluster analysis, nor those obtained by our expert identification through the use of analytical keys, matched with the current taxonomical frameworks as proposed by the most recent floras and checklists. Nearly all of the morphological characters considered displayed a more or less continuous trend of variation, both within and among populations. In the light of these findings it seems unlikely that more than one biological species of pubescent oak occurs in Sicily and southern Calabria. Keywords Diagnostic morphological characters . Nomenclature . Quercus . Southern Europe . Taxonomy
Introduction The majority of Southern European forest communities are characterized by the dominance of species belonging to the genus Quercus L. The genus includes about 435 species throughout the world, but this figure is probably an underestimate (Denk et al. 2017). In Europe, there are about 34 species which are distributed across the whole continent. The most recent classifications based on molecular studies (Manos et al. 2008; Denk and Grimm 2010; Hub
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