Morphological systematics of Serapias L. (Orchidaceae) in Southwest Europe

Abstract. We measured morphological characters and relative DNA contents to assess variation and phylogenetic relationships among Serapias species in three populations of each of the 10 putative taxa that occur in Southwest Europe. DNA contents indicated diploidy for most species, except for tetraploid S. lingua and hexaploid S. olbia.Multivariate (discriminant) analyses yielded two main groups: a smallflowered S. parviflora group and a large-flowered S. vomeracea group.Within the S. parviflora group, S. elsae should be considered a large-flowered variation of S. strictiflora. The geographically disjunct S. gregaria and S. strictiflora are probably different taxa. In the S. vomeracea group, analyses suggest that S. neglecta and S. cordigera are closely related. Serapias cordigera from the southwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula is probably a subspecies, S. perez-chiscanoi was separated from all other species and S. occidentalis
was morphologically intermediate between S. cordigera and S. vomeracea, suggesting a hybrid
origin, with the latter two taxa as parents.