o:8799 Variability of qualitative morpho-anatomical characteristics of needles in Abies alba Mill., A. cephalonica Loud., and A. borisii-regis Mattf en Abstract: Eighteen native fir populations from the Balkan Peninsula were analyzed based on five qualitative morpho-anatomical characteristics of the lower- and upper-rank needles. The study aimed to assess the utility of these characteristics in distinguishing Balkan Abies taxa and to examine potential variations between needle ranks. The multivariate statistical analysis revealed that A. alba and A. cephalonica can be clearly differentiated based on the four studied characteristics of both needle types. Abies borisii-regis populations appeared to be heterogeneous, exhibiting similar qualitative morpho-anatomical characteristics of both needle types to those of geographically closer populations of the parent species. Additionally, some qualitative morphological differences between lower- and upper-rank needles were also observed in all three species. KEYWORDS Firs; Balkan; differentiation; morphology; anatomy 2025-12-22T13:26:23.696Z 44 yes 46 Jelena S. Nikolić 46 Bojan K. Zlatković 46 Marina Z. Jušković 46 Vladimir N. Ranđelović 46 Biljana M. Nikolić 0000-0002-2436-8294 46 Zorica S. Mitić application/pdf 139692 https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:8799 no yes 1 70 92000001 71A07 Boanical Letters Taylors & Francis 2025