Morphological character variation of marsilea crenata L. Living in floating aquatic, emergent aquatic, and terrestrial

Abstract

Marsilea is a hydrophyte fern that has plasticity to the place where it grows. Several Marsilea species with different habitats or geographies show morphological variations. This study aims to analyze the morphological variations of M. crenata that grow in aquatic and terrestrial habitats. A total of 38 plant samples were collected from their natural habitats including floating aquatic, emergent aquatic and terrestrial. Morphological variation data includes 4 qualitative characters and 9 quantitative characters. Quantitative characters were analyzed by one-way ANOVA to test for differences, while the combination of quantitative and qualitative characters was analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to determine the distribution between groups. The results of data analysis showed a separate grouping pattern between aquatic and terrestrial populations. These two groups showed significant differences in 5 quantitative characters and 2 qualitative characters. However, it is interesting that the distribution pattern of emergent aquatic samples is closer to the terrestrial group. The similarity of the characters of these two populations was in the air spaces area of the rhizomes, the position between leaflets and there was no red streak on the abaxial lamina. Variations in the morphological characters of M. crenata indicate that this plant has undergone morphological adaptations to the availability of water in its environment.