Leaf morphological variability between natural populations of Quercus castaneifolia and Q. macronthera in Caspian forest

Abstract

To survey leaf morphological variability in natural populations of Quercus castaneifolia and Q. macronthera and identifying intermediate phenotype, 800 leaves from 40 individual trees in 4 populations were measured. The leaves were sampled along an elevational gradient. Although the current research was done in small scale, the results of multivariate analyzing show that lamina length, lamina maximum width, sinus depth below the maximum lobe and distance from leaf base to the leaf maximum width are the most distinctive characters to distinguish the populations. In the scatter plot, some individuals situated between Q. castaneifolia and Q. macronthera populations. Maybe these individuals can be assignated as intermediate phenotypes. Decisive suggestion in this regard calls for molecular study.

Keywords

• Caspian forest
• Oak
• Morphological traits
• Multivariate analyzing