Vegetos- An International Journal of Plant Research

Calligonum. Roborowskii A. Los of Polygonaceae is a drought-tolerant shrub distributed in the desert areas of southern Xinjiang, China. In the present study, the intra and inter population variation in C. roborowskii were examined biometrically on the basis of morphological characters of fruits and its relationship to ecogeographic features by comparing five populations from the Tarim Basin in terms of nine fruit characters. Intra-population variation was investigated using variation coefficient and one-way ANOVA test. A high degree of within-population variation was observed for most characters, with between-rib distance and bristle length found to be most variable. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis revealed the presence of two morphotypes within the five populations. Interpopulation variation was analyzed using Tukey's t-test, also a highly significant differences were also detected among populations for most characters. Principal components analysis indicated that achene shape and fruit width were responsible for most observed inter-population variation, and cluster analysis divided the five populations into two distinct groups. Fruit length, fruit width, and bristle length were strongly positively correlated with altitude. The other eco-geographic factors, Longitude and Latitude did not significantly correlate with studied characters of C. roborowskii fruits.