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VARIATION IN LEAFLET MORPHOLOGY AMONG THREE POPULATIONS OF ZAMIA L. IN PUERTO RICO
Author(s) -
Newell Sandra J.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.2307/1221265
Subject(s) - leaflet (botany) , population , context (archaeology) , biology , taxonomy (biology) , geography , botany , demography , paleontology , sociology
Summary Zamia leaflet morphology is compared among three populations in Puerto Rico. The variables measured were leaflet length, width, area, length : width ratio, number of leaflets per leaf, and leaf area. One population (Susúa) is highly significantly different in all variables from the other two populations. The Susúa plants have much longer and narrower leaflets and more leaflets per leaf. This population represents what is known as the narrow‐leaflet form and is considered by some to be a different species from the wide‐leaflet form. The other two populations (Arecibo and Santa Rosa) represent the wide‐leaflet form, although these two populations are significantly different from each other in all but one of the variables. The Arecibo plants have wider leaflets and more leaflets per leaf than the Santa Rosa plants. All four of the leaflet variables were non‐normally distributed and various transformations of the data did not entirely solve this problem. In the few cases where transformation produced a normal distribution of the data, the variances were highly significantly heterogeneous. The failure of this type of data to meet the assumptions of parametric statistics may limit the usefulness of these characters for taxonomic studies. The results are further discussed within the context of Zamia taxonomy.