The genus Poa in Patagonia (Argentine): a phenetic analysis of species of Poa subgenus Poa

Fifty-eight quantitative and qualitative exomorphological characters were recorded on 48 herbarium specimens belonging to rhizomatous species belonging to the genus Poa. These were treated as OTUs and analysed, together with the data from caespitose species treated in a previous paper, using cluster analysis, principal component analyses and stepwise discriminant analyses. The following hypotheses are proposed and discussed. (1) There is no evidence supporting the hypothesis that growth habit characterizes supraspecific entities. (2) P. trivialis, P. secunda, P. subenervis and probably P. compressa seem to be well defined species; those remaining are not discriminated through phenetic analysis. (3) There are no phenetic gaps between the rhizomatous species included in the P. oligeria—P. yaganica-P. chrysantha complex and the caespitose P. hachadoensis it is not clear that this single character supports its segregation. (4) The obscurity of the pattern of the species related to P. pratensis-P. nemoralis is probably explained by the capability of P. pratensis to introgress with taxonomically distant species and by the possibility of seasonal intraindividual variation of some characters. (5) The geographical origin of some species postulated as introduced seems to be doubtful.