engleski

Relations of the western Balkan endemic Campanula L. (Campanulaceae) lineages based on comparative floral morphometry

In the North-Eastern quadrant of the Mediterranean Region many endemic Campanula (Campanulaceae) taxa and lineages arose, some restricted exclusively to the mountains around the Adriatic basin. Of such lineages are Isophylla, Waldsteiniana, Pyramidalis and Rotundifolia, essentially separated on the basis of their leaf-shapes. Various approaches suggested different relationships between those groups of taxa, while some of the endemic West-Balkan, Dinaric lineages (f.e. Waldsteinana) were never considered in a broader picture. The aim of this study is to revise thoroughly the mutual morphological floral relations of these endemical Campanula lineages, on the basis of 14 taxa, 33 populations and 409 flower samples, and measures of the simple flower traits and variable-ratios. For data interpretation a phenetic approach using multivariate analyses was applied (Discriminant analysis, Canonical analysis, PCA), as a first attempt in understanding biometrical floral relations of several similarly distributed Campanula lineages, and a fundamental background for the cladistic and molecular analyses which will follow. Two main, “ natural” Campanula groups are clearly identified in this research, significantly different according to their flower properties. Unlike the scattered and disjunctive Isophyllas, which can be undoubtedly recognized on the basis of their floral traits, the Rotundifolias (Section Heterophylla) of the Adriatic Dinarids morphologically strongly overlap, since many local populations often function as incipient (“ small” ) species. Somewhat more clearly recognizable are shown to be the older members of the Rotundifolia group (C. cespitosa and C. justiniana), while the others (C. velebitica, C. albanica, C. jordanovii, C. rotundifolia s.l.) are barely to be separated according to their flower properties at all. On the other hand, the two Waldsteinianas are undoubtedly separated by their corolla-shapes: the star-shaped flowers of C. waldsteiniana fairly resemble those of the isophyllous Garganicae-series, while narrowly tubular corolla of C. tommasiniana follows the heterophyllous floral pattern of the older Rotundifolia-members. The C. pyramidalis samples are remote enough to give a picture of a flower pattern which is not to be mistaken with any other isophyllous or heterophyllous one.

Campanula; flower variability; systematic; Balkans; Dinaric Alps; multivariate analysis

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