నైరూప్య

Morphological and Chemical Diversity of Thymus Daenensis Celak (Lamiaceae) in Iran

Farrokh Ghahremaninejad

Thymus is taxonomically a very complex genus with a high rate of hybridization and introgression among sympatric species. The purpose of present study was to find out the relationship between morphological traits and essential oils components in 20 populations of Thymus daenensis Celak in the identical condition. The collected seeds from overall Iran planted in the greenhouse, and were transferred to the farm. A total of 60 morphological traits were measured and 11 important components of essential oils were compared within 74 individuals of 20 populations. Data analysis using ANOVA, PCA and cluster showed that the populations can be divided into two distinctive types based on their chemical and morphological traits. They contain over 70% thymol to over 70% carvacrol in their essential oils, and so might be divided into two subspecies with further studies.