Evaluation of genetic diversity of some native violet populations of Iran ‎‎(Viola spp.) using morphological markers

Violet is one of the most important plant in field of ornamental and medicinal purposes that grow wild in most part of Iran. Therefore, it is important to identify and evaluate the characteristics of Iranian native violets. In this study, 37 morphological characters were measured on 8 wild populations of Viola </em>spp collected from Alborz, Hamedan, Kermanshah, Ardebil and Mazandaran province. Correlation analysis showed some positive and negative correlations between characters such as lamina length from the base to maximum width with lamina sinus depth (r=0.911), number of fimbriae with number of glandular fimbriae along both stipule margins (r=0.914), lamina apex angle and colors corolla (r=0.854), lamina sinus angle with lamina length/lamina width (r=0.854), the lamina dentations has correlation with posterior petal length (r=0.736), stipule width with anterior sepal length (r=0.726). Factors analysis of these characteristics set the traits to six operating groups that justify 89.62% of total variance. Cluster analysis at Euclidean distance of 10, divided the populations into three branchesand important factors in cluster separation contain feature of flower color, flower size, shape of stipule and number of fimbriae on stipule. The results showed that violets with larger flowers such as Kermanshah and Chalous populations, violets with long stolons with fertile buds such as Sisangan population and also violets with large leaves in Kermanshah population and Varian can be used for medicinal and decorative purposes.