Pedicularis sudetica morphology

Pedicularis sudetica Willd. can be a difficult complex to identify and
classify using herbarium specimens.  Colors fade rendering
corolla patterns indistinct.  Especially problematic is the
presence of spots on the lobes of the lower lip and color patterns of the
galea.   Spots are either clearly visible or so faded
that only a few spots were visible on one or two flowers in the
inflorescence.  Galeas are either unequivocally bicolored, solid,
or indistinctly diffuse.  Other characters have been
inconsistently applied by taxonomists and/or are difficult to
discern.  All these factors combined only serve to confound taxon
identity and classification and members of the complex have been
classified as species, subspecies, or even varieties by different
taxonomists. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) of qualitative traits
and principal component analysis (PCA) of quantitative traits was employed
to explore the character and taxonomic structure of the group. 
MCA revealed that only three characters are necessary to classify the four
taxa of the complex.  No taxon structure was evident with
PCA.  Abundance of intermediate specimens over a broad geographic
range indicates hybridization is extensive among members of the complex
and suggests that a subspecific classification of the group is
appropriate.