Statistical Comparative Leaf Anatomy of Some Crocus L. Taxa

The aim of this study is to describe and compare statistically the anatomical characters of mature leaves of Crocus fleischeri Gay, C. danfordiae Maw, C. chrysanthus (Herbert) Herbert, C. pulchellus Herbert, C. flavus Weston subsp. flavus, C. pallasii Goldb. subsp. pallasii, C. speciosus Bieb. subsp. speciosus Mathew, C. speciosus Bieb. subsp. ilgazensis Mathew, C. speciosus subsp. xantholaimos Mathew, C. olivieri subsp. olivieri. The anatomical variations in ten Crocus taxa have been investigated by means of nümerical methods (Analysis of variance and Pearson correlation). By the analysis of the investigated taxa from eight leaf anatomy related characters, it has been determined that palisade cell height and spongy cell width are the best character pairs which represent the variations in them. It has been also found that the results from numerical analysis of the leaf anatomy characters can provide additional evidences which correspond to the anatomy for the recognition of the taxa.