Taxonomy of ranunculus in Tasmania

TL;DRAbstract

A taxonomic treatment has been made of Ranunculus in Tasmania. Mainland species have been included in some aspects of the work especially where they have particular bearing on the Tasmanian species. The approach was multifaceted and included traditional taxonomic methods of examination and description, and experimental investigations. Three new species have been described. Two species, R. decurvus and R. concinnus showed such close morphological similarity that multivariate morphometric analyses were employed to try to separate them. These analyses, principal components analysis, discriminant function analysis and a clustering technique, resulted in R. concinnus being considered a synonym under R. decurvus. An updated key for Tasmanian Ranunculus has been produced. Chromosome counts were made of 35 species. Intraspecific polyploid complexes were shown to occur in two native species, R. glabrifolius and R. amphitrichus. Transplant and controlled-environment growth experiments were condu

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