Environmentally Dependent Morphological Variability in Seven Apomictic Microspecies from Alchemilla L. (Rosaceae)

Apomictic microspecies, for example those of the genus Alchemilla, are often difficult to distinguish. Still, their differences are thought to be persistent due to apomixis. Apomicts are argued to have general-purpose genotypes. The present study aims to assess the variation of morphological characters of Alchemilla depending on environmental conditions both in nature and experimentally; to evaluate the efficacy of characters for identifying the different microspecies; to assess the similarity of different microspecies; and to determine if Alchemilla microspecies have general-purpose genotypes that are not dependent on environmental conditions. The variability of selected characters in seven microspecies of Alchemilla was studied in nature and five microspecies were grown in a common garden experiment. The growing conditions of the latter were subjected to various manipulations (fertilization, shading and irrigation). Typical natural habitats of Alchemilla exhibited only small differences. Environmental conditions therefore had little effect on morphological characters. Neither cultivation in the common garden nor manipulation of conditions therein had a significant impact on the discrimination of microspecies. However, the metric characters were larger in the garden relative to those observed in nature, particularly under fertilization. Fertilization affected most characters, whereas shading and irrigation did not. The most effective characters for discriminating between microspecies were the ratios of the metric characters. Two species pairs: A. vulgaris and A. micans, as well as A. glaucescens and A. hirsuticaulis were morphologically close; however, the species within these pairs could still be distinguished. The morphological characters of Alchemilla microspecies were only slightly dependent on the environmental conditions.