Revision of two species of Trifolium genus, Trifolium pratense L. and Trifolium mazandaranicum in Iran

The genus Trifolium is one of the largest forage genus of Fabaceae family. According to Flora Iranica، there are 51 annual or perennial species in Iran which two species are endemic. T. pratense is spread out all parts of the world and T. mazandaranicum is endemic species in Iran. At the first time، morphological studies were carried out in some herbariums. Then، many specimens were collected from natural habitats. For more assurance، micro morphological studies on pollen grains and seeds were done، also chromosome number of some accessions were carried out. Our results confirm existence of common morphological characters and common micro morphology of pollen grains، seeds and chromosome numbers. Considering the existence Of these two species in an identical habitate and only differences in the size of morphological characteristics، Trifolium mazandaranicum is suggested as a variety of T. pratense var. mazandaranicum.