Habitat-related adaptations in morphology and anatomy of Teucrium (Lamiaceae) species from the Balkan peninsula (Serbia and Montenegro)

In this paper adaptive morpho-anatomical traits are described of the species Teucrium fruticans, T. arduini, T. scordium, T. botrys, T. chamaedrys, T. flavum, T. montanum and T. polium in Serbia and Montenegro (Balkan peninsula). These characters of leaves and stems were related with chorology and ecology of the species. The research is based on 63 populations sampled across the region, from Eu-Mediterranean coastal areas up to the mountains and to temperate deciduous forest regions of Serbia. Descriptive statistics were calculated for 22 quantitative characters and multivariate analyses were performed to describe the structure of variability (PCA), to identify the significance of differences between the species studied (MANOVA), and to measure distances between them (CDA). In contrast to the widely distributed species Teucrium chamaedrys, T. montanum and T. polium, the species T. fruticans, T. arduini, T. scordium, T. botrys and T. flavum have narrow ecological ranges. Morpho-anatomical analysis gives evidence that all species except T. scordium are xerophytes with distinctly xeromorphic structures. But each of them is characterized by specific structural adaptations to the more or less arid environmental conditions. The perennial herbaceous T. scordium, from the humid habitats, belongs to the mesophytic plant type. The results show that structures of the analyzed species are only partially related with the phylogenetic position of the respective taxa. Multivariate analysis indicates that the morpho-anatomical similarity of some species with each other can be characterized as convergently developed rather in adaptation to xeric ecological conditions that as based on phylogenetic relations.