A morphometric study on Senecio erucifolius (Asteraceae) from Poland and its taxonomic implications

Twenty-three populations of <em>Senecio erucifolius</em> were sampled to study morphological diversity of the species in Poland. A total of 690 shoots, leaves, capitula, flowers, and fruits were characterized in respect to 27 quantitative traits and were subjected to morphometric analyses. Principal component analysis made it possible to distinguish two groups of individuals, corresponding to two infraspecific taxa – <em>S. erucifolius</em> subsp. <em>tenuifolius</em> (19 populations) and <em>S. erucifolius</em> subsp. <em>erucifolius</em> (four populations). The characters of the greatest importance in differentiating these two subspecies included the length of the upper lobe of the middle leaf, the width of the upper lobe, the width of the longest lateral lobe, the width of the upper lobe at the base, and the length of the tubular flower. Six of the 27 morphological features significantly differentiated populations within subspecies <em>erucifolius</em> according to a stepwise discriminant analysis. The length of the middle leaf, length of the tubular flower and width of the upper lobe at the base contributed most to the discrimination between the investigated populations. The discriminant analysis also showed considerable morphological heterogeneity of the 19 populations classified as subspecies <em>tenuifolius</em>. Seventeen characters significantly differentiated the populations, with the length of the achene and the ratio between the length and the width of the achene as the most important ones.

Three new masdevallia species (orchidaceae: pleurothallidinae) from Peru

Three new Masdevallia species are described, illustrated and compared with similar species. A brief taxonomic discussion is held about the justification for describing the new taxa as Masdevallia and not as belonging to any of the recently proposed segregated genera. The first species is most similar to M. rimarima- alba but differs in having a more tubular flower and a narrower lip, the second species is similar to M. dudleyi and M. nunezii but differs in the richly pubescent sepals, and the third species is distinguished from other similar and multiflowered Masdevallia species by the rugose lip.