Taxonomic discrimination of the <i>Paeonia mascula</i> group in the Tyrrhenian Islands by seed image analysis
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The taxonomy of the <i>Paeonia mascula</i> group in the Tyrrhenian Islands has always been controversial, especially in Sardinia and Corsica. In this paper, 124 morpho-colorimetric quantitative and qualitative features of seeds of the <i>Paeonia mascula</i> group from the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sicily, and Sardinia were measured by an image analysis system to evaluate whether differences in seed morphology were present and if the results support the current taxonomic treatment. Digital images of 41 accessions for a total of 3,317 seeds were acquired using a flatbed scanner, and morpho-colorimetric seed features were analysed using a plugin developed for the open source software ImageJ. The data were statistically processed by applying the stepwise Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). The results showed that the seeds of the studied taxa were distinguishable with a high percentage of classification and highlighted that three different taxa are identifiable in Corsica (<i>P. corsica</i>, <i>P. mascula</i> subsp. <i>mascula</i>, and <i>P. morisii</i>), while only one (<i>P. cambessedesii</i>) is identifiable in the Balearic Islands. In the same way, the morpho-colorimetric analysis identified two well-defined taxa in Sicily (<i>P. mascula</i> subsp. <i>mascula</i> and <i>P. mascula</i> subsp. <i>russoi</i>). On the other hand, the discriminant analysis suggested that only <i>P. corsica/morisii</i> and <i>P. sandrae</i> were present in Sardinia, while differences were highlighted between Sardinian and Corsican peonies. The present study represents the first attempt to investigate the taxonomy of the <i>P. mascula</i> group, which makes in-depth usage of the seed features as diagnostic characters. The results obtained in this work enable the usefulness of image analysis techniques in taxonomic investigations to be suggested in order to contribute to the future systematic evaluation.
第勒尼安群岛的牡牛牡丹类群（*Paeonia mascula*）的分类学地位长期存在争议，尤以撒丁岛与科西嘉岛区域为甚。本研究借助图像分析系统，对采自巴利阿里群岛、科西嘉岛、西西里岛及撒丁岛的牡牛牡丹类群种子的124项形态色彩定量与定性特征开展测定，旨在明确种子形态是否存在差异，并验证当前分类处理方案的合理性；研究采用平板扫描仪获取了41份种质材料共计3317粒种子的数字化图像，通过针对开源软件ImageJ开发的专用插件完成种子形态色彩特征的分析，数据统计处理采用逐步线性判别分析（stepwise Linear Discriminant Analysis, LDA）。结果表明，供试类群的种子可被较高准确率地区分，同时证实科西嘉岛存在3个独立类群：科西嘉牡丹（*P. corsica*）、牡牛牡丹原亚种（*P. mascula* subsp. *mascula*）与莫氏牡丹（*P. morisii*），而巴利阿里群岛仅分布有1个类群，即坎贝塞斯牡丹（*P. cambessedesii*）；同理，形态色彩分析在西西里岛鉴定出2个界限明晰的类群：牡牛牡丹原亚种（*P. mascula* subsp. *mascula*）与鲁索牡牛牡丹亚种（*P. mascula* subsp. *russoi*）。此外，判别分析结果显示撒丁岛仅存在*P. corsica/morisii*与桑德拉牡丹（*P. sandrae*）两个类群，同时研究揭示了撒丁岛与科西嘉岛牡丹类群间的形态差异。本研究为首例以种子特征作为诊断性状，对牡牛牡丹类群分类学问题进行深入探究的尝试，其结果可为图像分析技术在分类学研究中的应用价值提供佐证，以期为后续系统学评估工作提供参考。
