Popis: |
The diagnostic character set used in erecting the two species Ranunculus decurvus and R. concinnus, when applied to a wider collection of specimens, does not separate them unambiguously. These characters are variable, subject to habitat modifications and appear in random combinations within each supposed species. Multivariate analyses (principal components analysis, discriminant function analysis and a cluster analysis) using only the ‘diagnostic’ characters, a full set of characters for the description of the plants and a ‘size-adjusted’ set failed to separate specimens into two distinct species. Accordingly, it is proposed that R. concinnus be reduced to synonomy under R. decurvus. |