Rosa Taxonomy and Hierarchy of Markers Defined by ACT STATIS

The ACT STATIS method, a multi-table comparison, was applied to 62 Rosa species to be clustered into four sections (Carolinae, Cinnamomeae, Pimpinellifoliae and Synstylae); the data sets were dealing with morphology (15 criteria), anthocyanin pattern (10 compounds), flavonol heteroside pattern (26 compounds) and superoxide dismutase isozyme (SOD) polymorphism (11 bands). This method appeared very powerful to recognize the rose sections and to set up a marker hierarchy which places at the first level the flavonol heteroside pattern, then the morphological data, the SOD isozyme data and finally the anthocyanin pattern. The correlation studies between the markers underlined the relatively common view by means of flavonol patterns and the morphological features.