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Abstract
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Senecio vulgaris L., an annual herb belonging to the Asteraceae, is widely distributed in different regions of
the world. There is no information on the intraspecific variations of the morphological and molecular features of this
species. In the present investigation, we studied the morphological and genetic diversity of 81 accessions of S. vulgaris
collected from 10 geographical populations. Eleven inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers were used for the examination
of genetic variations among the populations. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) and GST analyses
revealed significant differences among the investigated populations. A significant correlation between genetic distance
and geographical distance was revealed by the Mantel test. However, reticulation analysis indicated the occurrence of
gene flow among most of the populations studied. Principal component analysis (PCA) plot showed that the number
of capitula, length of the cauline leaf and plant height were the most variable morphological characters. Principal coordinates
analysis (PCoA) plot revealed two groups of populations, according to molecular and morphological data.
The results suggested the existence of possible intraspecific taxonomic ranks within this species.
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