Astragalus ansinii sp. nov. (Fabaceae) from Turkey, and a contribution to the sectional taxonomy

Abstract

Astragalus ansinii A. Uzun, Terzioğlu & S. Palabaş‐Uzun, a new species from northeast Anatolia is described and illustrated. It belongs to Astragalus sect. Hypoglottis Bunge, but the characters in combination do not match completely with this section because the legumes, leaves and calyces are glabrous. This local endemic is known from two adjacent localities with several individuals. Astragalus ansinii is morphologically most similar to A. viridissimus but differs mainly by indumentum, numbers of pairs of leaflets and seed shape together with metric data related to calyx, standard and peduncle. Nuclear ITS was analysed in both species and was found to be highly similar. In addition, the seed morphology, distribution, conservation status and ecology of both species are discussed.

Resolving the position of Astragalus borysthenicus Klokov within the Astragalus L. species

“…These taxa have similar morphology. All of them are TBOs and are considered as endemic species (A. bachmarensis -West Caucasian; A. dasycarpus -Irano-Turanian, distributed only in eastern Turkey; A. akmanii -Irano-Turanian, also growing in southern Turkey) (Grossheim, 1930;Borisova, 1946;Güner et al, 2000;Uzun et al, 2009). These species are closely related, which is also confirmed by previously published phylogenetic trees (Dizkirici et al, 2013).…”

“…Morphological analysis of the Astragalus species from Turkey and adjacent areas (A. bachmarensis, A. akmanii, A. dasycarpus, A. ansinii, and A. viridissimus) was also used to verify the presence of morphologically similar parameters between A. borysthenicus and related species endemic to Turkey or the Western Caucasus. Morphological features were analyzed according to protologues and other special sources (Freyn, 1892;Grossheim, 1930;Matthews, 1969, 1970;Duman et al, 1995;Güner et al, 2000;Uzun et al, 2009). Only those characteristics that were comprehensively represented in the available literature for all comparable species were taken in order to create a list of morphological characters that potentially differentiate these taxa.…”

Astragalus nurhakdagensis (sect. Hololeuce Bunge / Fabaceae), a new species from Turkey

“…High mountainous areas with hard-to-reach terrain are the habitat of many members of this genus, and these narrow habitats shelter some hitherto unidentified species (Uzun et al, 2009). After the old-world revision of the genus Astragalus edited by Podlech and Zarre (2013), many new Astragalus species from Turkey have been described for plant science.…”