نشریه تاکسونومی و بیوسیستماتیک
سال شانزدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 60، Autumn 2024)

This study, conducted from 2017 to 2022, assessed and annotated a checklist of angiosperm species and their ecological attributes from the eroded areas along the River Kurram across an altitudinal gradient. The annotated list comprises 425 species belonging to 91 families, including 342 dicotyledonous species (80.47%) and 83 monocotyledonous species (19.52%). Among the families, Poaceae was dominant, comprising 42 species (9.88%), followed by Asteraceae with 37 species (8.70%). Fabaceae and Amaranthaceae each had 32 species (7.52%), with an additional 23 species (5.41%) for Amaranthaceae. Solanaceae also had 32 species (7.52%), followed by Brassicaceae with 15 species (3.52%), and Euphorbiaceae and Polygonaceae each with 13 species (3.05%). The remaining families had 12 species (2.82%) or fewer. The biological spectrum showed that therophytes were the most prevalent life form, with 228 species (53.64%), followed by hemicryptophytes with 44 species (10.35%), nanophanerophytes with 39 species (9.17%), and geophytes with 32 species (7.52%). The leaf size spectrum revealed that nanophylls accounted for 138 species (32.47%), followed by microphylls with 119 species (28.00%), while 10 species were aphyllous. Additionally, 286 species (67.29%) had a simple leaf lamina, and 24 species (5.64%) had a spiny leaf lamina. The habitats in the study area are severely affected by continuous landslides and soil erosion, primarily due to overflooding and other natural disasters

In recent years, several records of Malvaceae have been added to the flora of Iran. During a floristic study of the Hyrcanian region, Modiola caroliniana from the Malvaceae family was collected and identified for the first time in the low-altitude areas of Masal, Gilan province. It is hereby introduced as a new record for the flora of Iran. The alien species M. caroliniana is native to South America and has been introduced to Central America, North America, South and Northwest Africa, India, Japan, Korea in Asia, and Southern Europe. Modiola is a monotypic genus that differs from its related taxon Modiolastrum based on the number of seeds per mericarp and chromosome number. Other typical features of the plant include prostrate branches often rooting at nodes, small orange to brick-red corollas, and mericarps with two apical spines. The geographical distribution, photos of the plant, habitat, and distribution of the species in the world and Iran are provided at the present paper.

Reimeria Kocioleck & Stoermer is a small cosmopolitan genus introduced in 1987 by Kocioleck & Stoermer within Gomphonemataceae family. Species of Reimeria are biraphid and longitudinally asymmetrical with dorsiventral shape and a single stigma. For decades, only R. sinuata was reported from various localities in Iran. In the present study, the biodiversity of the genus was investigated in the Kordan and Hazarband rivers. The sampling process was carried out in 2019 with a total of five samples collected at five locations. A total of five species including Reimeria capitata (A.Cleve) Levkov & Ector, R. fontinalis Levkov & Ector, R. ovata (Hustedt) Levkov & Ector, R. sinuata (W.Greg.) Kociolek & Stoermer and R. uniseriata Sala, Guerrero & Ferrario were identified, three of which are new records for the diatom flora of Iran. Additionally, R. uniseriata Sala, Guerrero & Ferrario was the only taxon common to all sites and R. capitata (A.Cleve) Levkov & Ector was the least common one. R. sinuata (W.Greg.) Kociolek & Stoermer was consistently found in multiple locations across various sampling sites in Iran, but always in low abundance. Considering the species diversity observed at each investigated site, the distributional evenness of Reimeria species did not exceed 20 percent in any given location. The same applies to neighboring countries rather fairly, where Turkey and Afghanistan have the most and least species diversity, respectively.

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is a nutritious leafy crop worldwide, and the germplasm diversity may influence its performance and application in generating new adaptable cultivars. In this study, some morphological characters were used to assess the genetic variation of 81 local landraces across two years. According to the coefficient of variation, leaf size, dry weight of shoots, number of lateral branches, dry weight of roots, and dry weight of shoots revealed more variations in both years. Based on cluster analysis, spinach landraces were divided into six clusters in both years by verification of the cutoff border via four multivariate ANOVA statistics. Two groups (groups 1 and 6) of the spinach landraces in the first year, along with group 5, had the highest leaf yield performance, while these three clusters (clusters 1, 5, and 6) indicated the highest leaf yield performance in the second year. A comparison of dendrograms from both years indicated that 15 spinach landraces were grouped in the same clusters across the experimental years and did not show any remarkable genotype-by-environment interaction. The current spinach germplasm indicates a good resource of diverse characters that should be managed for future genetic improvement projects aimed at obtaining new cultivars. Finally, the most favorable 15 landraces performed desirably and are recommended for farmers due to their yield performance.