Fruit morphology of the genus Pimpinella (Apiaceae) in Turkey

Abstract

To explore if fruit morphology could aid in taxonomy of the genus Pimpinella L., we have undertaken a study of fruits from 26 Turkish taxa of Pimpinella using light and scanning electron microscopy-SEM-. A great deal of inter and intraspecific variation for both fruit shape and surface was observed. Fruit shapes of Turkish taxa of Pimpinella range from oblong-cylindrical to subglobose and indumentum when present can be strigose, hispid and may include hamate trichomes. Variation in fruit surface is also considerable and allows recognizing nine different ornamentation patterns. However, variation in shape, surface ornamentation and indumentum is not tightly associated since species with similar fruit shapes do not necessarily have similar surface ornamentation. To jointly analyse fruit morphology together with the most commonly used morphological characters of the whole plant and to compare morphological evidence with available phylogenetic hypotheses, a cluster analysis was also performed: the Turkish species of Pimpinella were clustered into two distinct groups, the second one subdivided in another two subgroups.