Molecular and morphological characterization of wild Mentha langifolia L. accessions from Zagros Basin: application for domestication and breeding

Mentha longifolia L. is an aromatic medicinal plant species in the Lamiaceae family. This study aimed to assess the diversity of 20 M. longifolia accessions collected from the Zagros Mountain range in Iran and Iraq using morphological and biochemical traits, as well as start codon targeted (SCoT) molecular markers. The evaluation of 24 quantitative and qualitative phenotypic traits revealed considerable variation, particularly for leaf size, stem features and inflorescence morphology. Substantial variation was also found for essential oil content (1.54–5.49