plants Article Explaining Intricate Morphometric Variability with Environmental Predictors: The Case of Globularia cordifolia Species Complex 1, 2 2, 1 3 Michele Innangi * , Maja Frišˇci´c , Kroata Hazler Pilepi´c y, Tiziana Danise , Fabio Conti , Fabrizio Bartolucci 3 , Antonietta Fioretto 1 and Lorenzo Peruzzi 4 1 Department of Environmental, Biological, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy;
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[email protected] (A.F.) 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Schrottova 39, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia;
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[email protected] (K.H.P.) 3 Floristic Research Center of the Apennines, University of Camerino—Gran Sasso-Laga National Park, San Colombo, 67021 Barisciano (L’Aquiila), Italy;
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[email protected] Hazler Pilepi´cpassed away during the initial stages of this research. y Received: 16 January 2020; Accepted: 28 February 2020; Published: 3 March 2020 Abstract: Globularia is a genus of small evergreen and perennial shrubs that are widespread in Europe. Globularia section Empetron includes a group of three species, G. cordifolia, G. meridionalis, and G. neapolitana, that have been taxonomically disputed for more than 150 years. Many morphological features have been proposed to discriminate these species. Nevertheless, evidence from both past and recent literature suggest that these differences among species are not consistent. In order to shed new light in this long-disputed group, we investigated 10 populations of the G.