Morphological Variability of Snowdrops in the Central Part of the Balkan Peninsula

Abstract

<jats:p>To address the issues of taxonomic delimitation and to select the material with desirable traits for horticultural use, a comprehensive study of the total variability of morphological characters of two naturally occurring snowdrop species (<jats:italic>Galanthus nivalis</jats:italic> L. and <jats:italic>Galanthus elwesii</jats:italic> Hook.) in the central part of the Balkan Peninsula was conducted. The analyses were performed for 16 quantitative characters of aboveground parts of 630 plants collected at 21 geographical points in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. To identify the trends in morphological differentiation, descriptive, univariate and multivariate statistical procedures were employed. Most of the examined characters exhibited moderate degrees of variability (<jats:sc>cv</jats:sc> from 10% to 20%) and the values of several characters exceeded the limits of variation stated in literature. Samples were mostly morphometrically homogeneous, with comparatively high similarity; only four populations of <jats:italic>G. nivalis</jats:italic> from the southern and southeastern part of the country were discrete. It is questionable whether these populations merit formal taxonomic recognition at any infraspecific level, but given their decorative qualities, the selected plants can be introduced into cultivation as horticultural plants.</jats:p>

Assessing Ecotourism Potential of the Fruška Gora N.P. And the Impacts on Rural Development

“…For instance, in late winter and early spring, local tourists are often attracted by the first snowdrops flowering in the area. Snowdrops are believed to be harbingers of spring, and in late winter they are present abundantly in the Fruška Gora National Park, being, in fact, the most abundant population of the common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis L.) in the country (Jovanović et al, 2016(Jovanović et al, , 2018. The population is a potential of botanical tourism, and it is expected that this kind of tourism, which protects the environment and the prosperity of the local people, could contribute socially and economically to the area.…”

Genotype diversity assessment of common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis L.) based on chlorophyll and carotenoids partitioning among different plant organs

“…Bavcon (2007Bavcon ( , 2008Bavcon ( , 2014 well documented that the variability among plants in the species Galanthus nivalis is er perianth segments, shape of inner perianth segments, number of outer and inner perianth segments, colour of outer perianth segments, colour pattern of inner perianth segments and shape and colour of ovary. The colour pattern of the outer and inner perianth segments and the colour of the ovary, are certainly the most important parameters from et al, 2001;Bishop, 2013;Grimshaw, 2013). It has also been plants with different colour patterns have different ecological functions.…”

Study on Galanthus species in the Bulgarian flora

“…Galanthus species are distributed in Europe, Asia Minor and Near East. Galanthus have economic value because of their ornamental potential and their use as landscape plants (Jovanovi c et al, 2018). In addition, Galanthus species contain alkaloids that have shown pharmacological activity (Zhong, 2005).…”