Numerical taxonomy of the genus Matthiola (Brassicaceae) in Northeast of Iran based on morphological traits

The genus Matthiola R. BR. (Brassicaceae) consists of 48 species in the Iranian plateau, of which only seven species are distributed in northeast of Iran. Six species erre collected from the region under study including M. afghanica, M. alyssifolia, M. chenopodiifolia, M. chorassanica, M. dumulosa and M. farinose. Two species, M. flavida and M. revoluta were recorded for the first time in this study. Some specimens of an unknown taxon entitled Matthiola sp. are also collected in the region and included in the present study. In this study, we tried to use a set of morphologically informative characters which could determine species boundaries and also provide appropriate identification key to the genus in the northeast of Iran. 71 morphological features including quantitative and qualitative were examined on 68 herbarium and field-collected accessions followed by statistical analyses. The results of the univariate analysis indicated that "presence/absence of trichome on the stem and leaf" and "presence/absence of glandular trichomes on the sepal and pedicel" did not significantly differentiate the species and they were excluded from the subsequent analysis. The results of multivariate analysis showed that the species under study were grouped within three groups. First group included specimens of the species M. alyssifolia, the species M. afghanica, M. chenopodiifolia, M. dumulosa, M. farinosa, M. flavida and Matthiola sp. were placed in second group and third group included specimens of the two species M. chorassanica and M. revoluta.