Seed morphology in the tribe Chloraeeae (Orchidaceae): combining traditional and geometric morphometricsboj_968 171..

CHEMISQUY M. A., PREVOSTI F. J. Y MORRONE O.

BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2009 p. 171 - 183

0024-4074

Previous work on orchid seeds has shown that characters associated with the seed coat may be useful forclassification and phylogeny at a suprageneric level. The seed morphology of several species of the tribe Chloraeeaewas analysed using traditional morphometrics, and the seed shape was studied, for the first time, using tools ofgeometric morphometrics. Seed characters were evaluated by their discriminative power and the information theymay provide in a phylogenetic context. By contrast with previous findings, seed shape resulted in a continuumamong the taxa studied, and in only a few cases could genera or groups of species be discriminated on the basisof shape. However, seed size, expressed as centroid size, was a variable character and informative at a phylogeneticlevel. Traditional measures of seed coat, mainly those of seed coat cells, were also helpful for the discriminationof genera and species, agreeing with previous statements about their utility in taxonomy and phylogeny. © 2009The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 160, 171–183.