Solanum kieseritzkii and its comparison with S. dulcamara in Hyrcanian forests (North of Iran) based on morphological and molecular data

Solanum kieseritzkii, an endemic species of Iran and the Caucasus, has been recently introduced in botanical sources as unresolved species and sometimes has been regarded a synonymous of S. dulcamara. In this research, along with field and herbarium studies, a morphological and molecular comparison is made between these two species; each of them is designated as a distinct species. Solanum kieseritzkii is a creeping rhizomatous plant 10–30 cm high, has only 1–3 flowers per inflorescence, and is found only in the dark forests of Hyrcanian province, while S. dulcamara is a plant of open habitats including residential areas, climbing the tress up to 300 cm high, and has inflorescences with 6–40 flowers. The results of the present study were highly supported by comparison of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences of different samples of both S. kieseritzkii and S. dulcamara and also comparing with other accessions from Genbank. Separation of two species is also confirmed by presented phylogenic tree.