Cladistical study and assessment of evolutionary process based on morphological data in genus of Ferula L. in Iran

Abstract

The genus Ferula L. belongs to Apiaceae family and tribe Scandiceae with Persian name Koma, Barijeh and Anghouzeh consisting of about 170-187 species worldwide. This genus is the largest member of Apiaceae in Asia and ranks third place in the world. In this study, for the first time, phylogenetical position of the genus of Iranian Ferula s. l. were investigated through cladistics analyses of morphological data based on maximum parsimony method by Win-PAUP* 4.0b10 software. In addition, evolutionary process of the 33 morphological characters of this genus was examined by MacClade 3.01 Macintosh OS program. Most of the investigated species were collected and determined from wild habitats. Comparison and evaluation of consensus tree of molecular and morphological data showed that 2 species of Iranian Leutea Genus must be transferred to Ferula genus. Although Dorema genus was placed in Ferula clade, verified transfer to Ferula needs more investigations. Also, according to this two comb nova. Ferula nematoloba (Rech. f.) Kanani and Ferula avicennia (Mozaff.) Kanani were added to Iranian Ferula.

Keywords

• Iran
• Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
• Morphology
• Cladistics
• Ferula