Taxonomical and Phylogenetic Investigations of Carex viridula Michx and Bolboschoenus maritimus (L.) Palla from Parachinar, Pakistan

Abstract

The family Cyperaceae, often known as sedges, has three main distinguishing features i.e., trigonous stem, terminal inflorescence, and presence of bracts. The members of this family are cosmopolitan in distribution and the plants are mostly associated with wetlands but could also be found in lakes, streams, grasslands and even sand dunes. The plants of family Cyperaceae are predominantly distinguished as constant weeds, anyway the members of family also serve other economical, ecological, horticultural, and medicinal purposes. But the taxonomical study of the family is very difficult due to its complex and complicated features of morphology. So, there is a need of alternate techniques for the taxonomic study of sedges. So, the current work is focused on the taxonomical and phylogenetic investigations of Carex viridula Michx and Bolboschoenus maritimus (L.) Palla collected from Parachinar, Pakistan. This work covers the analysis of these two species based on morphological, micro-morphological, and molecular characters along with their phylogeny. Stereomicroscope was used for the morphological analysis to observe different parts of the inflorescence such as glumes, utricles, nut, anthers, and pollens. While the micromorphological characters were studied with the scanning electron microscope (SEM). For further confirmation, the molecular and phylogenetic analysis were carried out using three molecular markers: ETS, ITS, and matK, and the sequences were submitted to the GenBank database. Geneious was used to conduct the phylogenetic analysis. Three types of analysis i.e., Neighbor Joining, Maximum Likelihood, and Bayesian were done for the phylogenetic studies. The morphological and molecular study solved the taxonomical issues of Bolboschoenus maritimus and Carex viridula species and will be used for the correct identification of these species.