Morphological Reanalysis of the Pedicularis sudetica Complex of Arctic North America: Character Trimming with Occam's Razor

Abstract Pedicularis sudetica can be a difficult complex to identify and classify using herbarium specimens. Colors fade, rendering corolla patterns indistinct. Especially problematic is the presence of spots on the lobes of the lower lip and color patterns of the galea. Spots are either clearly visible or so faded that only a few spots are visible on one or two flowers in the inflorescence. Galeas are either unequivocally bicolored, solid, or indistinctly diffuse. Other characters have been inconsistently applied by taxonomists and/or are difficult to discern. All these factors combined only serve to confound taxon identity and classification, and members of the complex have been classified as species, subspecies, or even varieties by different taxonomists. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) of qualitative traits and principal component analysis (PCA) of quantitative traits were employed to explore the character and taxonomic structure of the group. MCA revealed that only three characters are necessary to classify the four taxa of the complex. No taxon structure was evident with PCA. Abundance of intermediate specimens over a broad geographic range indicates hybridization is extensive among members of the complex and suggests that a subspecific classification of the group is appropriate.