Morphological differentiation of leaves in the relict tree Zelkova carpinifolia (Ulmaceae)

Zelkova carpinifolia is a relict tree occurring in refugial zones of south-western Eurasia. The main aim of the study was the biometrical comparison of the leaf characteristics of the species sampled in three regions of Transcaucasia. We aimed to test the hypotheses that (1) leaves from vegetative (L) shoots would be larger and more variable than those from fertile (S) shoots, (2) the leaves from the same shoot type express geographic patterns of morphological differentiation, similar to pattern described for genetic markers and (3) to verify the systematic position of Z. hyrcana and Z. carpinifolia subsp. yomraensis. The plant material was collected from 5 populations of Z. carpinifolia, one of Z. hyrcana and one of Z. carpinifolia subsp. yomraensis. The total 1482 leaves, 713 from Land 769 S-type were measured using 26 characters. Our results show very high level of differences between leaves from the Land S-type of shoots. The majority of leaf characters did not reveal dependence neither on geographic latitude, longitude and altitude nor on the basic climatic data. The results of multivariate analyses of S leaves revealed three group of populations, namely from (1) Colchis, (2) eastern Caucasus (3) Talysh. Thus, our biometric analyses revealed similar pattern to the haplotypic differentiation of Z. carpinifolia detected using chloroplast markers described in the literature. We did not detected significant differences in the leaf characters between supposed Z. hyrcana and/or Z. carpinifolia subsp. yomraensis, when compared to Z. carpinifolia, thus not confirming their separate taxonomic status. Additional key words: biogeography, biometry, leaf morphology, plant variation, taxonomy, Talysh, Transcaucasia Addresses: A.K. Jasińska, K. Boratyńska, A. Boratyński, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Dendrology, Parkowa 5, 62-035 Kórnik, Poland, e-mail: [email protected] B. Rucińska, Kazimierz the Great University, Department of Botany, al. Ossolińskich 12, 85-093 Bydgoszcz, Poland G. Kozlowski, S. Bétrisey, Department of Biology and Botanic Garden, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland G. Kozlowski, S. Bétrisey, Natural History Museum Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 6, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland H. Safarov, Institute of Botany, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Batamdar shosse 40, AZ1073 Baku, Azerbaijan H. Safarov, Hirkan National Park, AZ4235 Lankaran, Azerbaijan 110 Anna K. Jasińska et al.