Comparative morpho-anatomical analysis of Gagea pratensis (Pers.) Dumort. (Liliaceae) from Serbia and Montenegro

In this study, morphological and anatomical properties of species Gagea pratensis (Pers.) Dumort. were investigated and described. The comparative analysis included six populations from Serbia and Montenegro (Balkan Peninsula). This study aimed to examine potential morpho-anatomical differentiation and the characters that contribute most to the differences between populations. Statistical analyses were carried out for 19 morphological and 5 anatomical characters of 122 specimens using program STATISTICA 7, including the analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal component (PCA) and discriminant analysis (CDA). Analysis of variance showed that almost all investigated characters are statistically significant for differentiation of analysed populations. According to the principal component analysis characters that contributed the most to the separation of populations were height of the whole plant, bulb width, width and length of basal leaf, width and indumentum type of peduncle, length of first cauline leaf, width and length of second cauline leaf, and width of outer and inner segments of perigone. The results of discriminant analysis showed the existence of morpho-anatomical differentiation between analysed populations, separating the population from locality Gamzigradska banja from all other populations.