A numerical taxonomic research on Turkey polygala L. (polygalaceae) taxa

Polygala is represented in Turkey with 18 species and 2 subspecies. Among the species 17 are of them native and one of them is cultivated; totally 20 taxa with 5 are of them endemic. There is a few researches on the Turkish Polygala taxa and there is any numerical taxonomic research about them. In the account of this thesis, all of the Polygala taxa have been studied in term of morphology with numerical taxonomical methods. Moreover, the specimens of potentially new taxa for science have been involved in this study and they are also measured in detail. All of the Turkish Polygala examined in term of their morphological characteristic and 40 qualitative and quantitative characters have been selected. At least three specimens have been studied for the measurement and observation of the characters. All of the data obtained from measurement and observations have been transformed to a data matrix, then Principal Component Analysis, Character Wight Analysis, and the similarity analysis of the taxa with UPGM have been analysed comparatively in the programs of Minitab v18 and PAST 4.08. Taxonomic relationships of the taxa have been established according to their morphological features and a phenogram has been generated for better understanding visually. The taxonomic relationship of the taxa represented by phenogram has been compared with classical taxonomic approach. Taxonomic relationship of the taxa, based on the numerical taxonomic result and conventional taxonomy have been overlapped. Delimitation of the Polygala taxa is also supported by numeric taxonomical approaches.