Morphological, anatomical, palynological, karyological and ecological remarks of Astragalus argaeus (Fabaceae) endemic to Turkey

Abstract

Astragalus argaeus is a critically endangered endemic species growing only on Erciyes Mountain in Kayseri, Turkey. In this study, morphology, anatomy, ecology, pollen and seed morphology and karyology of this species were investigated. The previous description of the species has been expanded and amended. Anatomically, cross-sections of root, stem and leaflet were investigated for the first time. The pith of the root is exactly covered by xylem tissue. The cross-section of stem has a periderm as the protective tissue at the outermost layer. The leaflets are equifacial (isobilateral) and amphistomatic. The pollen grains are tricolporate, isopolar and radially symmetrical, shape prolate, ornamentation faevolate-reticulate. The seeds are brownish and dark dotted in colour and oblate in shape, with rugulate-reticulate ornamentation. Number of somatic chromosomes was identified as 2n = 16 in A. argaeus. The karyotype formula of this species consists of three median chromosome pairs and five submedian chromosome pairs. The plant grows in slightly acidic or alkaline soils with loamy-sand texture, high organic matter and CaCO3 contents.

Morpho-anatomical and palynological properties of endemic Astragalus tmoleus var. bounacanthus (Fabaceae)

“…Generally, they are tricolpate, sometimes 2, 4 or 6 aperture and variable shape from peroblate to prolate. In Turkey, pollen grains of Astragalus species are generally stenolapynous and radial symmetry, isopolar, tricolpate and they show microreticulate ornamentation [3,11,[13][14][15][16][17][18]. Our pollen findings are similar to the above evidences.…”

“…Turkey is one of the most important centers of distribution of the genus Astragalus and it is represented by 476 taxa, 64 sections. It has high endemism rates, with a value of 51% in Turkey [1][2][3][4].…”

Morpho-anatomical, palynological studies on Astragalus microcephalus; Anatolian tragacanth

“…The sections of the genus are determined based on morphological characteristics such as stem length, stipule connection, leaf shape, inflorescence form and fruit state [6]. Although there are some systematical [7,8], anatomical [5,[9][10][11][12][13], palynological [5,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] and micromorphological [5,[20][21][22] studies, some systematic problems with Astragalus species are still unresolved [16].…”

Light and scanning electron microscopic observation of palynological characteristics in spinelessAstragalusL. (Fabaceae) and its taxonomic significance

“…Astragalus shows distinct morphological variation between the species. They may be herbaceous annual or perennial, spiny or spineless, subshrubs or shrubs (Atasagun et al, 2018;Lock & Simpson, 1991;Maassoumi & Ranjbar, 1998). Majority of the taxa belongs to this genus are mostly distributed in drier regions of the cold semiarid to arid mountainous regions of the Northern Hemisphere and South America (Atasagun et al, 2018;Rashid et al, 2021b).…”

“…They may be herbaceous annual or perennial, spiny or spineless, subshrubs or shrubs (Atasagun et al, 2018;Lock & Simpson, 1991;Maassoumi & Ranjbar, 1998). Majority of the taxa belongs to this genus are mostly distributed in drier regions of the cold semiarid to arid mountainous regions of the Northern Hemisphere and South America (Atasagun et al, 2018;Rashid et al, 2021b). Furthermore, Astragalus taxa are more diversified in the phytoecological region such as, Irano-Turkish region of South-Western Asia and Sino-Himalayan Plateau of South Central Asia with great Basin as well as Colorado Plateau North America (Podlech, 1986;Zarre & Podlech, 1996).…”