A morphometric analysis of Prunus spinosa, P. domestica ssp. insititia, and their putative hybrids in Denmark

Abstract

The taxonomy of Prunus subgenus Prunus is notoriously problematic and reliable discriminating characters for species and subspecies identification are missing. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed on different morphological data sets and useful diagnostic characters for Prunus spinosa and P. domestica ssp. insititia were found. Many traditionally used morphological characters were found unreliable. The hypothesis of widespread hybridization between Prunus spinosa and P. domestica ssp. insititia in Denmark were examined using PCA and HYWIN. It was found that hybrids between the two taxa are rare in Denmark.