The Iranian Journal of Botany
Volume:21 Issue: 2, Summer and Autumn 2015

A new species of the genus Bupleurum from Gilan provinceis described and illustrated. Morphological peculiarities are mentioned. The new species are compared with the closely related species.

During identification of the new collection of the Cyperaceous specimens from N. W. Iran, Carex tristis was identified and is reported as a new record for the flora of Iran. Kobresia humilis and Carex medwedewii are other interesting species among the collected materials. A new combination, Carex popovii subsp. brunneola (Kukkonen) Amini Rad is introduced. Morphological characteristics, habitats and distribution for each species are presented.

Crotalaria assadii Zaeifi is described from south of Iran. It is widely distributed along the coastal plains and dunes of Balouchestan and Hormozgan provinces and erroneously previously determined as C. burhia Buch. -Ham. ex Benth. in some herbaria. The new species differs from C. burhia in legume shape, size and indumentum as well as plant indumentum which will be described here.

Two new species of Astragalus are described and illustrated, besides a checklist of about 75 Astragalus species collected from 33 different localities in Bozghoush chain Mountain are provided. The taxonomic characters of the new species are discussed and compared with the closely related species.

The specimens of Vitis hissarica Vass. subsp. rechingeri Vass. were collected for the first time in Shimbar Pprotected Area in Khuzestan Province of Iran. This species is widely grown in wetland and is recorded for the flora of Iran.

In the current survey, pollen, seed and fruit micro-morphological characters of the genus Geum L., comprising 5 species from two subgenera, Orthostylus Fisch & Mey. and Geum were examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and light microscope (LM). The pollen grains are monad, radially symmetrical, isopolar, tricolporate, medium in size, elliptical (from equatorial view) and triangular to circular (from polar view) in outline, subprolate to prolate in shape. The exine ornamentation is striate with micro perforation. Seeds coat micro -morphology revealed two types of sculpturing (including sulcat-ribbed and sulcat-foveolate) and fruits morphological analysis showed the importance of joint position and hairs on the style, beak length and hook in this genus. Principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out using a total of 20 characters. The result supports current classifications and emphasizes the importance of micro- macro-morphologocal traits for separating the two subgenera and species of the genus. Based on the important distinguishing characters a key is presented.

Silene mishudaghensis (Caryophyllaceae) from the section Auriculatae is described as a new species from Northwest of Iran. The new species is distinguished from its closely related species, S. araratica and S. longisepala by the shape of basal and cauline leaves, the shape of calyx, the length of alar and lateral pedicel and seed features.

During checking the herbarium identified materials and consulting with existing data bases, four new names for the invalid names and 8 new synonyms were recognized which will be introduced.

Trifolium incarnatum L. is reported for the first time for the flora of Iran. It has been collected from Marivan area in Kurdistan province. This species belongs to the section Trifoilium anddistinguished from T. sylvaticum Gerard ex Loisel by the following characters: Dense, large head (about twice as much as the later one) and red flowers. Also it differs from T. stellatum L. by possessing larger leaflets, oblong heads (about two times longer than the later) and red flowers.

Phyllanthus tenellus Roxb. was lately found as naturalized species in Mazandaran province. This report represents the first record of the species for the flora of Iran. It seems that it is introduced through exotic plants commerce and often distributed in the gardens, especially in the ornamental plants nurseries. Since ornamental plants imports started in a large scale in Iran less than 50 years ago. It is a small and herbaceous plant and is easily recognized by its very small flowers in axillary cymes on the branches and leaves thin and fragile produced on lateral shoots which resembling a compound leaves.

The trichomes of silicules and pedicels in 37 Alyssum species of Iran were studied. The shapes of trichomes vary from star-shape to simple and dendroid. The star-shape is the most common type. Section Alyssum has the most diversity in its trichomes. Some of species have two kinds of trichomes on their silicules. The form of trichome in some species like A. hirsutum and A. heterotrichome separate them from the other species. Therefore, the trichome shapes in Alyssum species can be used as a taxonomic tool to some extent.

Leaf anatomical characters of eight Iris L. taxa were compared and their relations were determined. Iris danfordiae, Iris celikii, Iris histrioides, Iris pamphylica and Iris histrio ssp. aintabensis are endemic to Turkey. Iris bakeriana, I. celikii, I. histrioides, I. pamphylica, I. histrio ssp. aintabensis and Iris histrio ssp. histrio have limited distribution in Turkey. The differences were seen especially in the mesophyl layer of the leaves. Mesophyll of I. reticulata and I. histrioides have an unifacial ensiform structure. Whereas mesophyll of the other investigated taxa have a bifacial ensiform structure. Leaf outline structure of all taxa are quadrangular structure (excluding I. bakeriana-terete structure). In mesophyll of leaves, hexagonal crystals (I. histrioides, I. danfordiae, I. bakeriana, I. histrio ssp. histrio, I. histrio ssp. aintabensis and I. pamphylica) and crystalline granules (I. reticulata, I. bakeriana, I. celikii, I. danfordiae, I. histrio ssp. histrio, I. histrio ssp. aintabensis and I. pamphylica) were found. The layer number of spongy and palisade parenchyma also vary among taxa. In the leaf anatomic characters of I. histrio ssp. histrio, I. histrio ssp. aintabensis, significant differences were not obseved. Based on the above leaves anatomical characters, we suggest that (1) I. reticulata and I. histrioides should be independent species with close relationships; (2) ssp. histrio and ssp. aintabensis should be homonym of I. histrio, rather than of its subspecies; (3) I. danfordiaeand I. celikii should be independent species with close relationships; (4) I. pamphylica and I. bakeriana are different species of the subgenus.

The somatic chromosome numbers and karyotype of five species of Onopordum L. (Asteraceae) from Iran were investigated. Our results confirm that all of the species are diploid (2n=34). First chromosome reports are presented for O. leptolepis DC., O. heteracanthum C. A. Mey. and O. carduchorum Bornm & Beauverd. Besides, the chromosome numbers of O. armenum Grossh., O. carduchorum and O. acanthium L. are reported from Iran for the first time, confirm the previous reports. Karyotype formulae for O. armenum, O. carduchorum and O. leptolepis were similar (1Sm+16m), for O. heteracanthum and O. acanthium were respectively 17m and 1M+16m+2B.Satellites were commonly found on submetacentric pairs, being also variable in morphology and location.

Chromosome numbers and karyotypes of 10 species of Allium section Acanthoprason collected from different localities in Iran are presented. Seven counts represent new reports. Chromosomal characteristics were determined using photographs complemented by statistical analyses. Our results show that the members of this section are diploid with homogeneous karyotypes characterized by the basic chromosome number of x = 8. The karyotypes are ±symmetrical composing mainly of metacentric and submetacentric chromosomes.

Chromosome number and karyotype are determined for three species: Scorzonera parviflora (Asteraceae) (2n=14) Silene noctiflora (Caryophyllaceae) (2n=24) and Ranunculus repens (Ranunculaceae) (2n=32). Idiogram was prepared for each species. Symmetrical karyotypes were class 1A in Scorzonera parviflora, class 2A in Silene noctiflora and class 2B in Ranunculus repens.Karyotype formula were 7m inScorzonera parviflora, 8m+ 4sm in Silene noctiflora and 13sm+3m in Ranunculus repens.

The present study focused on the molecular phylogeny of the four sections (Aporum, Crumenata, Strongyle, and Bolbidium) of genus Dendrobium SW. (Orchidaceae) based upon low copy nuclear gene, Xanthine Dehydrogenase (Xdh) sequences using maximum parsimony (MP), maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian (BI) methods. Single and low copy nuclear genes have been increasingly used in phylogenetic reconstruction because they contain large amounts of genetic information and are biparentally inherited. Classifications based on morphological characters have not been able to clearly divide these four sections and neither do they support their monophyletic origins. Therefore, detailed analysis using molecular data is required to ascertain their status. This study includes 20 species of genus Dendrobium and 2 species from genus Bulbophyllum (section Sestochilus) as outgroup taxa. According to the results, the aligned sequences consisted of 733 nucleotide characters of which 131characters were parsimony informative. The analysis revealed that the nuclear genes can be reliable marker for the phylogenetic study of genus Dendrobium. The results suggested that the four sections are probably best considered as one section instead of four and based on the International code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) rules can be named as section Aporum for this new classification.