Comparison of different morphometric methods on three taxa of the genus Ceratocephala (Ranunculaceae) in Iran

The genus Ceratocephala with about 14 species in the world, has two species in Iran, including C. falcata and C. testiculata which are widely distributed in different parts of the country. Ceratocephala falcata has variations in fruit shapes. Some botanists have considered several subspecies and varieties for this species. In this research, traditional morphometric and geometric morphometric methods have been used to determine the taxonomic position of these taxa. Traditional morphometric studies based on nineteen quantitative characters (including leaf and fruit traits) of 78 populations were performed using SPSS software with the Ward method. Geometric morphometry based on fruit traits was performed in 22 specimens using tps Dig 2.12 and morpho J software. Traditional morphometry was not successful in distinguishing varieties, but different varieties including C. falcata var. falcata and var. excapus were identified using geometric morphometric methods.