Numerical Taxonomy of Aeluropus TRIN. Species (Poaceae) in Iran

Aeluropus as a perennial and rhizomatous grass with 5 species in the world is the only member of Aeluropodeae. Due to the presence of hybrids taxa and some subspecies, effective diagnostic features provided for their classification have been insufficient. Aeluropus identification has a lot of problems. In this project 23 accessions of Aeluropus from different localities of Iran have been studied using 26 qualitative and 22 quantitative morphological features. Some accessions with intermediate morphological characters were found between A.littoralis and A. lagopoides. Multivariate statistical analysis comprises Cluster analysis and Ordination was done by use of SPSS ver. 9.1. Software. Species relationships were evaluated by use of qualitative and quantitative morphological features. Results of statistical analysis showed that there were clearly four different species in this genus in Iran and some intermediate accessions too. An identification key based on studied morphological diagnostic characters was provided for members of this genus in Iran.