Morphological variation pattern of Aquilegia ecalcarata and its relatives

Aquilegia ecalcarata is the only spurless species within the genus Aquilegia and comprises a monophyletic clade with A. yabeana, A. kansuensis and A. rockii. Our previous study on the genetic diversity of those four species revealed that the populations of A. ecalcarata can be divided into two groups, indicating possible genetic difference within A. ecalcarata. However, it is not clear whether the genetic difference is related to the morphological variation among species and groups of A. ecalcarata populations. To answer that question, the morphological variation patterns based on 22 floral and 19 vegetative traits from 42 populations, covering the entire distribution of A. ecalcarata and its relatives were analysed in the present study. The result showed that (1) the differences among the four species were reflected in the floral rather than the vegetative traits; (2) populations of A. yabeana and A. rockii fell into one cluster each, and each of the six clusters occupied its own distr...