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Abstract

Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare Mill., is a very abundant aromatic and medicinal plant that grows spontaneously in several regions of Tunisia. The aim of this study is to describe the morphological variability of Foeniculum vulgare which seems to be essential to ensure a very appropriate sampling for a better exploitation of this species, especially since the morphological variability is often associated with a chemical variability of the active molecules. Therefore, our sampling concerned the different aerial parts of the species (stems, umbels and seeds) from sixteen provenances which are spread over different bioclimatic stages: humid, sub-humid, upper semi-arid and medium semi-arid. Several characters of morphological variability have been described for each plant part. For the stems : the length and the number of nodes and umbels per stem have been assessed, for the umbels: the diameter, the number of umbellules and the number of seeds per umbel have been described and for the seeds: the length and the seed width and the weight of 100 seeds were measured. The main results obtained were the subject of a principal component analysis. This study revealed a clear morphological variability linked to the different origins of tested plants.