3. RESULTS
This work evaluates macro-morphologically the achene structures of the examined taxa containing color, figure, dimension and carpopodium diameter. Achene color has shown variation; brown-dark brown (in 3 taxa), straw yellowish-light brown (in 2 taxa), light brown-brown (in 12 taxa), yellowish-light brown-brown (in 6 taxa), dark brown (1 taxon) and dark brown-blackish brown (in 2 taxa). The figure and dimension of achenes vary markedly. The examined achenes are separated into 4 shapes; fusiform-oblong, oblong, oblong-ovate and ovate. Oblong-ovate is the most common type (noted in 20 taxa). However, oblong is typical form forA. abrotanum . Achene dimensions range from 0.62 mm to 2.48 mm in length, from 0.30 mm to 1.21 mm in width. As A. santonicum subsp.patens is of the largest achenes, A. annua and A. verloitorum have the smallest achenes (Table 2, Figure 1). Achene macromorphological surface structures are of 3 different types; (1) bare, deeply longitudinally striate (in 3 taxa), (2) bare, finely longitudinally striate (in 18 taxa) and (3) rough, deeply longitudinally striate. Carpopodium diameter vary between 0.10 mm and 0.19 mm (Table 2). The largest carpopodium diameter is found in taxa A. fragransand A. taurica var. vanensis , while the narrowest one isA. alpina species (Table 2).
Achene surfaces of the examined taxa are micro-morphologically assessed, and the substantial differences are noticeably detected on behalf of the surface structures for instance, surface ornamentation, anticlinal and periclinal cell walls, epidermal cells and presence of secondary structures of the achenes. Surface ornamentation is separated into 10 types: irregularly sulcate, regularly sulcate, ruminate, sulcate-scalariform, rugose, favulariate, slightly sulcate, alveolate, tuberculate and reticulate. The most common types are irregularly sulcate (in 7 taxa) and regularly sulcate (in 7 taxa), while ruminate (in A. abrotanum ), rugose (in A. chamaemelifolia ), favulariate (inA. arborescens ), alveolate (in A. santonicum subsp.patens ), tuberculate (in A. taurica var. vanensis ) and reticulate (in A. bashkalensis ) ornamentation types are found as taxon-specific (Table 3, Figure 2). The structures of the anticlinal cell walls of the studied taxa are unclear, raised and sunken. As raised cell walls are mostly detected in the irregularly sulcate, ruminate, sulcate-scalariform, alveolate and reticulate ornamentation types, the favulariate and tuberculate types are found where epidermal cells are enclosed by sunken walls. Rugose type is connected with unclear type (Table 3). There is no link between concave or convex periclinal cell walls and surface ornamentation type. In the rugose type is observed only unclear periclinal cells. Moreover, the structure of epidermal cells on the achene surface has displayed variation. It is rectangular, arched-rectangular, polygonal and unclear forms. The most common cell type is rectangular, while arched-rectangular and polygonal are fairly rare (Table 3). 13 of the examined taxa have secondary structures, which are irregular lines, irregular epicuticular wrinkles, irregular epicuticular protrusions, epicuticular wrinkles and dome-shaped protrusion. The most common type is epicuticular wrinkles; however, dome-shaped protrusions and epicuticular wrinkles are for characteristic for A. marschalliana .
A percentage comparison of the elements in the achene pericarp of the studied taxa have performed with SEM-EDS. Accordingly, pericarps in taxa include C, Ca, K, Mg, Cl, Si, Na and S elements. The most common seen element is C, which ranges from 77.4 (in A. austriaca ) to 96.2 (in A. absinthium ). Along with C, Ca element is also found in the pericarps of all taxa examined. It is between 0.6 (in A. arborescens ) and 12.2 (in A. austriaca ). K element is observed in other taxa except A. abrotanum and A. marschalliana , albeit in low amounts. Mg element is found in the pericarps of 12 of the examined taxa; the amount varies between 0.6 (in A. tournefortiana ) and 1.2 (in A. austriaca ). Si element is only found in trace amounts in taxa A. chamaemelifolia (0.6), A. tournefortiana (0.8) and A. fragrans (0.5). Na element is observed only in A. santonicumsubspecies and A. arborescens species. On the other hand, S element is found in low amounts only in A. alpina species (Table 4).
The numerical evaluations of the achene morphological characteristics allow the creation of a dendrogram, which discloses the differences-similarities among the examined taxa. A dendrogram is made as a result of the cluster analysis of the examined taxa ofArtemisia based on the variation of 44 characters in 26 taxa. The cophenetic-correlation coefficient is defined to explain the relationship between the dendrogram and dissimilarity matrix (Figure 3, Table 5). The cophenetic-correlation between the dissimilarity matrix and dendrogram has been calculated as 0.61, signifying a good-match. Cluster analysis has detached the taxa into 2 major groups of A and B: Cluster A includes A. araratica, A. scoparia and A. verloitorum (A1), A. abrotanum , A. annua , A. austriaca , A. campestris , A. incana , A. alpina ,A. spicigera , A. tournefortiana , A. absinthium ,A. fragrans and A. armeniaca (A21), A. splendens ,A. taurica var. taurica , A. haussknechtii , A. sieberi subsp. sieberi , A. marschalliana and A. taurica var. vanensis (A22). Cluster B1 comprises A. chamaemelifolia and A. arborescens . Cluster B2 contains A. santonicum subsp. santonicum , A. bashkalensis andA. santonicum subp. patens . Artemisia vulgaris has formed a clade outside these clusters in the dendrogram (Figure 3).A. splendens and A. taurica var. taurica are the most closely correlated taxa (dissimilarity coefficient: 0.069), whileA. vulgaris and A. marschalliana are the most distantly correlated taxa (dissimilarity coefficient: 0.716) (Table 5). Cluster A has the highest number of taxa compared to another cluster (Figure 3).