Hippophae rhamnoides L.: Fruit and seed morphology and its taxonomic problems in Turkey

Abstract

Hippophae rhamnoides, which comprises of 9 subspecies, has an extremely wide distribution but fragmentally in Eurasia. H. rhamnoides L. subsp. caucasica is the only known species growing in Turkey. In this paper, morphological traits of seed and fruit considered as diagnostic characters of H. rhamnoides L. subsp. caucasica in Turkey (Sivas, Trabzon, ligaz, Urgup) were analyzed ill order to show whether there is taxonomical problems and try to reconstruct the relationship among the taxon of different regions, to test whether there is a significant association between the morphological characters measured and its environ. Photographs, fruit and seed dimension (length and width) and shape are recorded, using performed ANOVA, Duncan test, UPGMA cluster analysis, climatic diagrams. UPGMA cluster analysis showed that subsp. caucasica samples of Trabzon-Ilgaz regions form a branch and Sivas 94-Urgup another branch, while Sivas 96 samples form a complete different group. Climatic diagrams for study areas revealed that the differences, variations in the fruit and seed characters were not significantly correlated with ecological conditions. All results of this study imply that another taxon or taxa of H. rhamnoides is likely present in Turkey and also the specimens of these different regions can be differentiated on the basis of these features.