A MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE CIMICIFUGA-FOETIDA L COMPLEX (RANUNCULACEAE)

Plants referred to the collective 'species' Cimicifuga faetida L. occu r in four main disjunct areas of Eurasia; (1) Siberia and northern Mon golia; (2) central and western China; (3) Kashmir and western Tibet an d (4) middle Europe. Taxonomic limits within this collective group hav e been very ill-defined, with some authors recognizing only a single v ariable species comprising variously delimited varieties, and others r ecognizing a number of separate geographically or morphologically circ umscribed species. Our examination of 17 morphometric variables, using Analysis of Variance and Canonical Discriminant Analysis, reveals a n umber of clear differences in shape and size of plant organs between t he four main geographic areas. These morphometric differences, further more, correlate well with differences in other, more qualitative, feat ures. We thus recognize four geographically delimited species: C. euro paea Schipcz. in Europe, C. foetida L. in Siberia and Mongolia, C. kas hmiriana J. Compt. & Hedd. sp. nov. in Kashmir and C. mairei H. Levl. in China. Two varieties, C. foetida var. racemosa Regel and C. mairei var. foliolosa (P.K. Hsiao) J. Compt. & Hedd., are also recognized. Ke ys and brief descriptions are provided for all the taxa, and the distr ibution of each species is mapped. (C) 1997 The Linnean Society of Lon don.