As an initial part of a revisional study based on the genus Micromeria Benth. (Lamiaceae), extensive field studies, herbarium and literature surveys, and multivariate analysis have been conducted. Recently, many morphological and molecular studies have been conducted on the genus Micromeria and related genera. Consequently, the generic boundaries of Micromeria have dramatically changed. | Research Article Turk J Bot 34 (2010) 379-389 © TÜBİTAK doi: Morphological character analysis in Turkish Micromeria Benth. (Lamiaceae) species with a numerical taxonomic study Turan ARABACI1,*, Tuncay DİRMENCİ2, Ferhat CELEP3 1 İnönü University, Faculty of Science and Arts, Department of Biology, Malatya - TURKEY 2Balıkesir University, Necatibey Education Faculty, Department of Biology Education, Balıkesir - TURKEY 3Middle East Technical University, Department of Biological Sciences, 06531 Ankara - TURKEY Received: Accepted: Abstract: As an initial part of a revisional study based on the genus Micromeria Benth. (Lamiaceae), extensive field studies, herbarium and literature surveys, and multivariate analysis have been conducted. Recently, many morphological and molecular studies have been conducted on the genus Micromeria and related genera. Consequently, the generic boundaries of Micromeria have dramatically changed. Therefore, a morphometric analysis was carried out on Turkish Micromeria . species, belonging to sect. Micromeria, sect. Cymularia Boiss., and sect. Pseudomelissa Benth., 2 Clinopodium L. species, and 2 Mentha L. species in order to understand their taxonomic relationship. For morphometric analysis, 27 morphological characters and their states were investigated by means of MVSP software. Our results supported previous molecular studies. The members of the sect. Pseudomelissa should be transferred to the genus Clinopodium. Turkish Micromeria species are now represented by 8 species belonging to sect. Micromeria and sect. Cymularia. In addition, the taxonomic position of Micromeria cymuligera Boiss. & Hausskn. (sect. Cymularia) is discussed. The most important diagnostic characters of the Micromeria species such as leaf and calyx are illustrated. Key words: Clinopodium, Cymularia, Labiatae, Micromeria, morphology, Pseudomelissa, taxonomy Türkiye Micromeria Benth. (Lamiaceae) türleri üzerinde morfolojik .
