Morphological and leaf anatomical variability of Crocus cf. heuffelianus Herb. (Iridaceae) populations from the different habitats of the Balkan Peninsula

Abstract

Crocus cf. heuffelianus Herb. belongs to the series Verni Mathew and presents one of the most complex and critical taxa within the whole genus Crocus L. Depending on different authors, C. cf. heuffelianus is sometimes split into different taxa (e.g., C. scepusiensis (Rehmer & Wol.) Borbás ex Kulcz., C. vittatus Schloss. & Vuk., nom. illeg.). In order to disentangle the complicated taxonomical status of this species and to determine the degree of its morphoanatomical variability in the different environmental conditions, a comparative investigation of plant morphology and leaf anatomy of seven populations from the Balkan Peninsula was carried out. Morphometric analysis included meristic, quantitative, and qualitative parameters. To examine the leaf anatomy, fresh cross sections were made by manual microtome and stained with safranin and alcian blue. Statistical analyses, such as principal component analysis and canonical discriminant analysis revealed significant differences between populations, indicating the presence of distinct groups correlating with their geographical distribution. The largest contribution to the differentiation of analyzed populations is made by the characters that are related to corms, perigone segments, leaves, and anthers, followed by the general outlook of cross sections, palisade and spongy parenchyma, abaxial epidermal cells, and vascular bundle features. These findings confirm that from the morphoanatomical point of view Balkanian C. cf. heuffelianus presents an aggregate of species.

Disentangling Crocus Series Verni and Its Polyploids

“…The leaf sections of all 435 individuals were double-stained with safranin (1 g of safranin dissolved in 100 mL of 50% ethanol) and alcian blue (1 g of dye dissolved in 100 mL of distilled water, with a couple of crystals of phenol and three drops of glacial acetic acid). Stained sections were then dehydrated through an alcohol series (50%, 70%, 96%, 100%), examined, and photographed with a Leica DM 1000 microscope (Leica Microsystems) [16,45,46]. Anatomical features were measured in IMAGEJ [47].…”

“…Anatomical features were measured in IMAGEJ [47]. A list of 42 characters from the literature relevant for this group [46,48,49] related to morphology and leaf anatomy was taken into consideration (see Supplementary Table S4). The qualitative characters were standardized as states represented by numbers (see Supplementary Table S4).…”

Investigations on anatomical and morphological characteristics of some Crocus L. taxa around Abant Lake

“…However, the length of palisade cell variations was between 37-72 µm in the Crocus cf. heuffelianus of different populations (Raca et al, 2019). The number of palisade cell was 2, sponge cell was 3-4 in the studied taxa; and in many studies (Özdemir et al, 2004;Satıl and Selvi, 2007;Kandemir, 2009;Raca et al, 2019).…”

“…heuffelianus of different populations (Raca et al, 2019). The number of palisade cell was 2, sponge cell was 3-4 in the studied taxa; and in many studies (Özdemir et al, 2004;Satıl and Selvi, 2007;Kandemir, 2009;Raca et al, 2019). The vascular bundle was variable in terms of shape and number compared to the studied taxa.…”

“…In similar studies, the number of large vascular bundles was four, and the number of small vascular bundles was varied at keel corners and arm ends (Kandemir, 2011;Erol and Küçüker, 2007;Satıl and Selvi, 2007;Raca et al, 2019).…”