Evaluation of diversity of eco morphological and phytochemical traits of Artemisia sieberi Besser. in different habitats of Qom province in Iran

In this study, in order to study and compare the morphological and phytochemical traits of Artemisia sieberi Besser., aerial parts of the plant at the full flowering stage were collected randomly from 20 different regions of Qom province. Morph physiological and phytochemical traits including plant height, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, leaf ash percentage, leaf and width length, shoot dry weight, as well as chlorophyll content, soluble sugars, proline, phenol, flavonoid, and essential oil percentage of different populations, were measured. In addition, ecological conditions and soil composition in each area were assessed. Due to the ecological diversity of habitats in Qom province and based on the analysis of the main components for ecomorphological and phytochemical traits of Artemisia sieberi populations, the highest diversity of characteristics and factor load was observed in chlorophyll a, b and aerial dry weight as the most important distinguishing feature of A. sieberi populations, respectively. The results of cluster analysis showed the separation of A. sieberi populations in two main groups with 13 and 7 populations in a hierarchical dendrogram, respectively. The results of correlation of traits showed that aerial dry weight had a significant positive relationship with chlorophyll and essential oil content. In general, the amount of proline, soluble sugars, phenols and flavonoids had a significant relationship with ecological traits, temperature and rainfall in each region. In addition, the altitude of each region was negatively correlated with the amount of proline and positively correlated with the percentage of essential oil, so that the population of Vanan with the highest altitude had the highest percentage of essential oil. In general, the amount of rainfall and the height of the environment affect the appearance and amount of plant compounds.