Juno wallisiae (T.Hall & Seisums) M.B.Crespo, Mart.

Crespo, Manuel B., Martínez-Azorín, Mario & Mavrodiev, Evgeny V., 2018, Notes on taxonomy and nomenclature of juno irises (Juno, Iridaceae), Phytotaxa 376 (5), pp. 185-200 : 195

Juno wallisiae (T.Hall & Seisums) M.B.Crespo, Mart. -Azorín & Mavrodiev comb. nov.

≡ Iris wallisiae Hall & Seisums (2014b: 246) , basionym. Holotype:— LEBANON. Entre Aarsal et le col de Zemrani, 1800 m elevation, avec Armoise [ Artemisia ], 6 March 1957, H. Pabot s.n. (G00418712 [digital image!]).

Observations:—This species belongs to the aggregate of Juno persica , and shows some resemblance to J. sieheana . However, its distribution is restricted to eastern Lebanon and southwestern Syria, where it had been misidentified as J. persica (cfr. Mouterde 1966, Tohmé & Tohmé 2011). A number of remarkable differences allow readily distinction from J. sieheana and other members of the J. persica group ( Hall & Seisums 2014b). The standards are comparatively large, over half the length of the falls, and they remain almost horizontal; the floral bracts are subequal, soft-textured and greenish at anthesis, becoming silvery-transparent after anthesis; flowers are smaller, up to 5 cm in diameter, variable in colour (pale sea-green, greenish-yellow, pale-blue or rarely blue-violet or even white, but often with darker veining on falls, and with pale yellow to orange-yellow crest and surrounding zone to falls; the falls show a narrower wing, up to 1.5 times wider than the blade. Chromosome differences also exist, the counts in J. wallisiae being 2n = 22 whereas they are 2n = 18, 20 in the J. persica aggregate ( Hall & Seisums 2014b). All those features and a southernmost distribution allow recognition at the specific rank, and the new combination in Juno is proposed here.