Discriminant analysis of pollen spectra of Basque Country (northern Spain) honeys

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Abstract
The maxminf, direct and Wilks' lambda methods of discriminant analysis from the SPSS-X statistical package were applied to the 61 pollen taxa found in 115 honeys from three provinces (Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa and Alava) in the Basque Country of northern Spain. The direct method, using 58 taxa, gave the highest discrimination, correctly assigning 93% of the honeys to their province of origin. With seven taxa—Compositae type Carduus sp., Ericaceae type Arbutus unedo, Castanea sativa, Leguminosae type Genista sp., Eucalyptus sp., Rubus sp. and fruit-bearing Rosaceae (Prunus sp.)—the discrimination was 81 % for the maxminf method with an F-to-enter of 4.0. Hence, these are the taxa that most characterize the origin of the honeys.