Koelpinia Pall., Reise Russ. Reich. 3: 755. 1776.

Zaika, Maxim A., Kilian, Norbert, Jones, Katy, Krinitsina, Anastasiya A., Nilova, Maya V., Speranskaya, Anna S. & Sukhorukov, Alexander P., 2020, Scorzonera sensu lato (Asteraceae, Cichorieae) - taxonomic reassessment in the light of new molecular phylogenetic and carpological analyses, PhytoKeys 137, pp. 1-85 : 1

Koelpinia Pall., Reise Russ. Reich. 3: 755. 1776.

Type species.

Koelpinia linearis Pall.

Diagnostic features.

Annual herbs; pollen with 15 lacunae; at least outer achenes columnar-scorpioid, surface with hooked emergences and elongated papillae looking like glandular hairs, (sometimes achenes smooth, without emergences and papillae: K. tenuissima ), without pappus, but apically with hooked, retrorse spines.

Description.

Habit, life form, subterranean parts: annual herbs with a taproot.

Leaves: subsessile, filiform to narrowly oblong, entire.

Stem, synflorescence: stem solitary or mostly branched, glabrous or with scattered simple hairs; synflorescence mostly branched, with several capitula.

Capitula: involucre glabrous to hairy, phyllaries in several series, narrowly oblong to lanceolate, outer phyllaries much shorter than inner; receptacle naked or with scattered setae; capitula with 5-12 yellow florets, much exceeding the involucre.

Pollen: echinolophate, tricolporate and each colpus divided into 2 lacunae, with 15 (6 abporal, 3 equatorial, 6 interporal) lacunae, often pollen tetracolporate in polyploids ( Blackmore 1981).

Achenes: 6-25 mm, usually columnar-scorpioid, (sub)annular ( K. macrantha ) or almost straight ( K. tenuissima and K. turanica ), with 5 or 10 more or less prominent ribs, surface often covered with emergences resembling hooked spines and glandular-like (elongated) papillae or surface almost glabrous in K. tenuissima , without carpopodium; achene wall with or without air cavities, parenchyma continuous above sclerenchyma represented by thick-walled cells, sclerenchyma continuous, its fibres orientated parallel to the fruit axis (perpendicular in emergences), tannins absent.

Pappus: bristles absent, achenes with several retrorse hooked spines (Fig. 15H ).

Chromosome number.

x = 6 for K. macrantha ( Podlech and Bader 1974; Nazarova 1981) or 7 (all others species) ( Stebbins et al. 1953; Podlech and Bader 1974; Nazarova 1981), diploids to octaploids.

Species.

(1) K. chrysoglochis Rech.f.

(2) K. linearis Pall.

(3) K. macrantha C.Winkl.

(4) K. tenuissima Pavlov & Lipsch.

(5) K. turanica Vassilcz.

Distribution area.

N Africa: DZ; EG; LY; TN. Asia-Temperate: AF; AM; AZ; BH; CN; CY; GE; IL; IQ; IR; KG; KW; KZ; LB; QA; SA; SY; TJ; TM; TR; UZ. Asia-Tropical: IN; PK. Europe: ES; RU; UA.

Figures

Figure 15. Images of living plants. A, B - Tourneuxia variifolia (Morocco, near Mrhimina). Photographs by A. Garcin (www. teline. fr) C - Gelasia villosa (cult. in BG Berlin, 13 Jun 2010). Photograph by N. Kilian D, E, F - Gelasia rigida (Jordan, Nakeb, 1250 m alt., 8 May 2019). Photograph by O. Fragman-Sapir. D general view E capitula in flowering F capitula in fruiting, a part of achenes had fallen off G Geropogon hybridus (Greece, Lefkas, 15 May 2016). Photograph by E. Willing H Koelpinia linearis (Qatar, Khashem Al Nekhsh area, 18 Mar 2016). Photograph by A. Sergeev.