CHEMOTAXONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF LEAF WAX ALKANES IN THE GRAMINEAE

Leaf wax alkanes were determined in several species of the grass famil y (Gramineae) and used as chemotaxonomic characters. Leaf wax alkanes were extracted with hexane and determined by GC-MS on a data set inclu ding 93 species belonging to five subfamilies: Bambusoideae, Pooideae, Arundinoideae, Chloridoideae and Panicoideae. The large data set on t he Pooideae allowed consideration of the chemotaxonomic significance o f leaf wax alkanes in the tribal classification of this family. The da ta obtained were statistically processed by using multivariate methods including cluster analysis, principal component analysis and discrimi nant analysis. The partitions provided by the statistical analyses pre sented many interesting systematic correlations with morphological dat a both at subfamilial and tribal level. The results of this study conf irm the usefulness of leaf wax alkanes as chemotaxonomic markers.