Page 6 - CAPPARIS_2006

Volume 93, Number 1 Inocencio et al. 127
2006 Revision of Capparis Sect. Capparis

Table 2. List of morphological characters considered in the study.

Character States
1. Plant habit Erect / procumbent / pendulous
2. Height Maximum length of the stems in meters
3. Twig shape Tortuose / straight
4. Twig color Green / yellowish / reddish / waxy
5. Internodes Length in millimeters
6. Stipule shape Curved / somewhat curved / straight / setaceous
7. Stipule orientation Spreading / retrorse / antrorse
8. Stipule base Decurrent / not decurrent
9. Stipule color Orange-yellow / orange / golden-yellow
10. Leaf shape Rounded / ovate / lanceolate / oblong / elliptical / obcordate /obovate
11. Base of the leaf Obtuse/ tapering / acute/ cordate
12. Leaf apex Acute / rounded / obcordate / obtuse / truncate
13. Mucro presence and length Long (1–1.5 mm) / small (0.5–1 mm) / very small (0.1–0.5 mm) / lacking
14. Mucro shape Straight / curved
15. Leaf texture Herbaceous / fleshy
16. Leaf veins prominence Prominent / not prominent
17. Petiole length Very short (less than 0.5 cm) / short (0.5–1.5 cm) / long (exceeding 1.5 cm)
18. Leaf abaxial indument Very dense / dense / dense to lax / lax / very lax
19. Trichome thickness Thick (25–50 mm) / thin (15–25 mm)
20. Trichome length Long (250–900 mm) / short (50–250 mm)
21. Fertile floral pedicel length Long (greater than 4 cm) / short (1.5–4 cm)
22. Fertile floral pedicel thickness Thick (over 1 mm) / slender (less than or equal to 1 mm)
23. Flower bud apex Acute / rounded
24. Abaxial sepal Galeate / slightly galeate
25. Flower symmetry Zygomorphic / somewhat zygomorphic
26. Number of stamens Numerous (100–150) / not so numerous (40–80)
27. Anther length Very small (2 mm) / small (2–3 mm) / large (3 mm)
28. Anther apex Rounded / acute
29. Fruit shape Rounded / ellipsoidal / obovate / oblong
30. Pulp color Red / yellow
31. Seed color Brown/ dark brown
32. Seed size Length 3 width 3 depth in millimeters

preparing exsiccatae. Voucher specimens were de- Distribution of species comprising several subspecies
posited in MUB and UMH. is represented in Figures 2, 4, and 5. Habitat is
Here we base species on morphological and described using the available data on herbarium
biogeographical features. The species represented labels and those reported in the protologue of each
are more or less distinct, heterogeneous, and variable taxa. Phenology data are restricted to the flowering-
morpho-physiological entities, the origin of which is fruiting period according to the herbarium specimen
associated with a particular environment and area in labels and the protologue.
agreement with Vavilov (1931). Taxa are defined in
such a way that it is relatively easy to determine the TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS IN CAPPARIS SECT. CAPPARIS
ascription of each specimen to either one or another.
Therefore, extremely large and variable species were We have shown that molecular, phytochemical, and
avoided. Discontinuities, both geographical and in vivo data are useful for understanding patterns of
morphological (see vestiture, stipules, leaves, inflo- variation and, as such, were considered for the
rescences, flowers, and fruits sections in this paper), populations present in Spain, Morocco, Syria, and
are good markers, but hybridization and hybrid Lebanon (Inocencio, 2001; Inocencio et al., 2000,
swarms have obscured the definition of species and 2002, 2005); however, these methods have not yet
subspecies. been applied to the entire section. Therefore, we
New taxa are represented in Figures 3, 6–9. selected characters generally available in herbarium
Geographic distributions have been plotted exclu- specimens (Table 2), some of which have been used
sively using the information from herbarium sheets. for the first time in this study. For example, anther tip