The Iranian Journal of Botany
Volume:14 Issue: 2, Summer and Autumn 2008

Acer mazandaranicum is described as a new species from the south of Sari forests in north of Iran, It is well characterized by the following characters such as having thick and leathery leaves, lobes entire or undulate, terminal leaves usually with three lobes, corymbs hanging with very long peduncles and pedicels, samaras with totally overlapping wings, the bark is glossy grayish white and without cracks. It has also different period of seed abundant production (seed great mass year is between 2-3 years) comparing to the others. The new species is a relative of Acer hyrcanum Fisch. & C. A. Mey. which is compared with.

Four new species including: Echinops quercetorum (Compositae: Echinopeae), Erysimum elymaiticum (Brassicaceae), Gypsophila elymaitica (Caryophyllaceae), and Trichodesma elymaiticum (Boraginaceae) are described. Taxonomic characters for all species with illustrations are given.

The genus Cistanche Hofmmg. & Link. has seven species in Iran of which one taxon is endemic to area of “Flora Iranica”. During reconsidering of Orobanchaceae for the Farsi version of Flora of Iran we found a new subspecies of Cistanche which is described as C. flava (C. A. Mey.) Korsh. subsp. bicolor Saeidi & Shahi. Moreover, C. eremodoxa Bornm., previously reported from Khorassan province, is proposed as a synonym of C. ambigua (Bunge) G. Beck. A diagnostic key to all species of Cistanche distributed in Iran is also provided. For each species, ecology and some taxonomic remarks are presented.

For the preparation of Flora of Iran, Ruppiaceae, Ruppia cirrhosa was collected from a wetland in Khuzestan province for the first time. This species is reported as a new record for the aquatic flora of Iran.

Colutea komarovii is recorded from Iran for the first time. The specimens were collected in NW Iran near Aras river. C. komarovii formerly has been recorded from Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia. This species belongs to Colutea sect. Armata that includes four species, of which now three are known from Iran.

Ventenata dubia (Leers) Cosson belongs to the family Gamineae is recorded for the first time as a new genus for the flora of Iran. This taxon has been collected from Ardabil province (Lisar Protected Area of Gilan and Sardabe Ardabil) in NNW of Iran for the first time. Its characteristics, localities, habitat, and geographical distribution are discussed.

Among the herbarium specimens, Fuirena pubescens was identified which is the first report of the genus for Iran. Morphological characters, habitat, geographical distribution in the world and Iran are also presented.

Carex pamirica is reported for the first time for the flora of Iran. The species has been collected from wetlands of west Elburz Mts. in Gilan province. Main characters of the species and its geographical distribution are presented.

The genus Euphorbia was studied based on morphological characters in NE. Iran. E. cheirolepioides Rech. f. is distinguished as a synonym of E. grossheimii Prokh. E. turkestanica Regel is reported for the second time from NE Iran for the flora of Iran.

The phylogeneteic relationships in genera Calligonum and Pteropyrum (Polygonaceae) are reconstructed using 30 vegetative and reproductive morphological characters. The data matrix comprised 18 species of Calligonum and 3 species of Pteropyrum plus 2 Atraphaxis species representing outgroups. The analyses were conducted using maximum parsimony approach with characters treated both equally weighted and reweighted by rescaled consistency index. The results revealed that Calligonum is monophyletic. But Pteropyrum is appeared to be monophyletic after reweighting procedure. In both analyses Calligonum is composed of two clades, one is including the winged fruit species (sect. Pterococcus) and the second including the bristled fruit ones (sect. Calligonum) encompassing the monotypic sect. Calliphysa (Calligonum junceum). Of 30 characters analyzed, seven are synapomorphic for both genera. Six characters in Calligonum and one in Pteropyrum were genus specific. The remainder of characters was evolved homoplasiously (or ambiguously) among thsese taxa.

Seed proteins were studied in 21 populations of 17 Bromus species and varieties growing in Iran. In total 83 protein bands were observed in all the species studied. The number of bands and their density varied in these species, indicating their genetic differences. Some specific bands were observed in most of the species indicating the presence of specific genes in these species as a result of species diversification. Such specific protein bands may be of use in the Bromus species identification. Different clustering and ordination methods showed separation of the species of sect. Bromus from the species of the sect. Pnigma, indicating the use of seed proteins in taxonomic delimitation of these two sections.

In this study leaf and petiole anatomy of 10 species of the genus Pyrus L. belonging to four sections, Pashia, Pyrus, Xeropyrenia and Argyromalon, and one cultivated specimen (close to P. syriaca) is presented. These species include Pyrus boissieriana Buhse, P. kandevanica Ghahreman & Khatamsaz, P. turcomanica Maleev, P. hyrcana Fedor., P. mazanderanica Schönbeck-Temesy, P. syriaca Boiss., P. glabra Boiss., P. oxyprion Woron., P. salicifolia Pall., P. elaeagnifolia Pall. Among 43 studied anatomical characters, 29 characters vary in different localities, seven are constant in all species and four are valuable and can be used in distinguishing species. These characters include number of layers of palisade parenchyma layer, density of palisade parenchyma layers, and presence of lower palisade parenchyma layer between auricles. On the basis of the present study, anatomical characters are useful for separating Zagros species from Alborz ones and also in sectional level.

In this survey, leaf anatomy (midrib and blade) of 22 species and hybrids of the genus Amygdalus L. (Rosaceae) in Iran is studied. Regarding to vegetative form, the species of Amygdalus are distributed as four forms in Iran: trees, shrubs with brachyblast (short shoots), shrubs without brachyblast and spiny shrubs. Forty-one characters were measured and among them, some characters were variable and taxonomically valuable. The most important characters includes: presence or absence of hair and hair type on midrib and blade, length of adaxial and abaxial epidermal cells in midrib and blade, presence or absence of spongy parenchyma and its thickness, number of palisade parenchyma layers and their thickness, the angle between two halves of blade, midrib shape, ratio of midrib length/width, presence or absence of fiber around phloem in midrib and its thickness, presence or absence of internal phloem in midrib, ratio of xylem length/width and phloem length/width, adxial and abaxial collenchyma thickness in midrib and adaxial and abaxial parenchyma thickness in midrib. One of the special characters in leaf anatomy of Amygdalus is the density of palisade parenchyma layers and the absence of spongy parenchyma in leaf in most species that is related to semi-arid ecological conditions. While leaf anatomical features of the genus Amygdalus are relatively reliable in specific level, they are not useful in subgeneric or sectional level.

In this survey, leaf and rachis anatomy of 14 Iranian species of the genus Rosa belonging to two subgenera and four sections was studied. The species examined are including: Rosa persica, R. beggeriana, R. webbiana, R. moschata, R. canina, R. elymaitica, R. orientalis, R. iberica, R. pulverulenta, R. foetida, R. pimpinellifolia, R. hemisphaerica, R. boissieri and R. villosa. On the basis of morphological features of R. canina, eight form-series were distinguished that five of them were studied in this survey. Among 48 anatomical characters examined only 17 characters are valuable at the species level such as presence or absence of fiber in midrib, the number of palisade parenchyma layers, the angle of two parts of blade, presence or absence of spongy parenchyma, shape of auricle in rachis and the distance of auricles.

The pollen grains of four species of Adonis consist of A. wolgensis Stev., A. aestivalis L., A. dentata Del. and A. flammea Jacq. were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In this work 10 different pollen characters were described, illustrated and compared. All pollen grains were tricolpate and exin ornamentation in two types, as echinate in A. wolgensis with small grains (mean = 19.40 µ) and in 3 other species with scabrate sculpturing and large grains. The result of SEM investigation of pollen chracteres revealed segregation of perennial Adonis wolgensis from other annual species. The pollen type of A. wolgensis is the first report in the world.

Three lichen species, Cryptothecia striata, Lecanographa lyncea and Caloplaca citrina are reported from Iran for the first time. The genera Cryptothecia and Lecanographa are also first reports for Iran. Opegrapha vulgata is new record for Golestan province.