Numerical taxonomic studies on some species of Piper L. (Piperaceae) of North East India

Abstract

Eighteen taxa of Piper occurring in Arunachal Pradesh North-East India have been subjected to cluster analysis. Thirty-two characters were considered, of which 22 are qualitative and 10 are quantitative. The characters include 26 morphological and 6 anatomical. Cluster analysis was carried out using weighted pair group percent disagreement, and dendrogram was constructed. The dendrogram obtained through the analysis revealed that the species of the region fall under 6 distinct clusters under two broad sections each consisting of 3 clusters. Species of each cluster show close inter-specific relationship with more than 50% similarity among them. The study is helpful in establishing the relative affinity among the Piper species occurring in the region. The result also indicated that the species of Indian Piper could be grouped into two sub-generic sections.