Fruit and seed morphology in some representative genera of tribe Rhinantheae sensu lato (Orobanchaceae) and related taxa

We investigated fruit and seed morphology in 48 taxa of 22 genera in the tribe Rhinantheae s.l. and related genera of Orobanchaceae. Fruit and seed morphology are heterogeneous across the studied taxa. The most useful features for this study are the indumentum of the capsule, seed number per capsule, seed coat ornamentation, and secondary structure of the seed coat. On the basis of seed coat features, five major types are recognized, viz. reticulate, cristate-winged, sulcate, psilate and irregularly striate. In addition, phenetic analysis of 19 characters produced an unweighted pair-group method using arithmetic averages tree and displayed highly heterogeneity at infra-and inter-genera. The classification of Rhinantheae s.l. is discussed and keys to the genera considered in this work, based exclusively on fruit or seed characters, are provided.