Morphological, anatomical and palynological studies of the genus Zoegea L. (Asteraceae) in Iran

The genus Zoegea L. belongs to Asteraceae family and has about 10 species in the world. This genus is considered to be an Irano-Turanian and Mediterranean element and is distributed in south-western and central Asia and in the central, southern, north-western and south-western parts of Iran as well. The subspecies classification of the genus is not consensus and various classifications could be found in different taxonomy resources. In this study various specimens from different regions of Iran were studied. In addition, anatomical and palynological characters were used to perform a cluster analysis in order to determine species groups. In the end, our results confirmed that Z. baldschuanica and Z. glabricaulis were distinct species.