Integrating morphological characters, molecular markers, and distribution patterns to assess the identity of Blepharis species from Jordan.

Background: Blepharis constitutes an important part of the vegetation of the Jordanian arid and semi-arid regions, yet whether one or more species of this genus occurs in the Jordanian area is uncertain. We addressed this question by assessing morphological characters and testing Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers from three populations of Blepharis: two northern (lower slopes of Kufranjah valley and the Dead Sea region) and one southern (Wadi al Yutm).

Results: Shoots from randomly chosen Blepharis plants were harvested from each of the three populations for morphological and molecular analyses.