An investigation of the taxonomy of Hordeum capense and H. secalinum (Poaceae: Triticeae)

Abstract

That Hordeum capense, a South African species, and H. secalinum, a mainly European species, are conspecific, has been the prevailing view for the last 80 years because of a lack of distinguishing markers. In the present paper, morphological separability is demonstrated by means of cluster analysis, classificatory discriminant analysis, logistic discrimination, and canonical discriminant analysis. The performance of the linear classification functions are evaluated by the bootstrap and discussed. Lodicules and epiblasts were found to be good distinguishing markers. The nomenclatural type of H. secalinum has been designated as lectotype instead of the previously designated neotype.