Análise morfológica e demográfica de Limonium sp. do Cabo Raso (Cascais): L. multiflorum, L.ovalifolium e L. ovalifolium x multiflorum

Relatório Final Bolsa de iniciação à Investigação (BII)The species of the Limonium genus from coastal cliffs have a great interest for conservation. The goal of this work was to perform a morphometric characterization of the lusitan endemism L. multiflorum Erben and L. ovalifolium (Poir.) O. Kuntze from several locations of the Portuguese coastline. We also wanted to determine if hybrids L.ovalifoliumxL.multiflorum existed in Cabo Raso (Cascais) promontory where the two species co-distributed. Finally, we performed a demographic analysis of both species populations of this particular site. Seed analysis demonstrated that both species possessed dark brown hard seeds, but those from L.multiflorum were bigger and straighter. Both species exhibited oblanceolate to lanceolate leaves with five veins, although L.multiflorum showed smaller ones. The results obtained for flower characters measurements support the hypothesis that small sized individuals maybe hybrids L.ovalifoliumxL.multiflorum. The analysis of the demographic structure of the populations from Cabo Raso revealed that L. ovalifolium was composed by 65% of adults and 14% of juveniles while that of L. multiflorum was essentially constituted by 50% of juveniles