Delimiting species boundaries within the Bothriochloa saccharoides complex (Poaceae) through morphometric analysis

The Bothriochloa saccharoides complex is one of the most interesting groups within the genus Bothriochloa (Poaceae). The plants inhabit grasslands of tropical and subtropical regions from the Americas. Principal components analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA) were employed to evaluate the m...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Scrivanti, Lidia Raquel, Norrmann, Guillermo Alberto, Anton, Ana Maria Ramona
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/3403
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/3403
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:American Grasses
Gramineae
Geographical Distribution
Multivariate Analysis
New Subspecies
Numerical Taxonomy
Species Complex
Species Delimitation
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:The Bothriochloa saccharoides complex is one of the most interesting groups within the genus Bothriochloa (Poaceae). The plants inhabit grasslands of tropical and subtropical regions from the Americas. Principal components analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA) were employed to evaluate the morphological variation among 60 herbarium specimens tentatively identified as B. imperatoides, B. laguroides, B. longipaniculata, B. saccharoides and B. torreyana. Twenty-three morphological characters were included in the analysis in order to clarify problematic species boundaries. Chemical data was incorporated to improve the resolution on delimitation of the species complex. Taxa were delimited according to the observed clustering of specimens in the PCA plots and discriminant analysis, and diagnostic characters were identified. The results showed that five taxa could be distinguished on the basis of morphological characters and chemical data. Two new subspecies are described: B. saccharoides subsp. americana and B. saccharoides subsp. australis. An identification key and a taxonomic synopsis are provided.