Aubrieta amasya Tunçkol & Al-Shehbaz, 2023

Tunçkol, Bilge & Al-Shehbaz, Ihsan A., 2023, Aubrieta amasya (Brassicaceae, Cruciferae), a new species from northern Turkey, Phytotaxa 600 (4), pp. 255-258 : 255-257

Aubrieta amasya Tunçkol & Al-Shehbaz , sp. nov.

Diagnosis:— Aubrieta amasya differs from the related A. anamasica and A. pinardii by having distinctly longer styles and veinless fruit valves.

Type: — TURKEY. Prov. Amasya, Gümüşhaciköy-Dumanlı Village, Kabaoğuz Alm , 41°02 ‘58 “N, 35°11 ‘31 “E, 22 May 2022, ca. 1530 m, Bilge Tunçkol T-6250 ( DUOF-10695 !; isotype: MO-7011600 !). Figures. 1 , 2 .

Description: —Herbs perennial, loosely cespitose; caudex with many slender branches covered with leaf remains of previous seasons. Trichomes a mixture of primarily stellate, short stalked to subsessile, 4–7-rayed, 0.1–0.35 mm long, and fewer, short-stalked, 2- or 3-brached ones. Stems 4–8 cm tall, slender, pubescent with sessile or short-stalked stellate trichomes; lowermost parts usually with few, simple, setose trichomes 0.5–1 mm long. Basal leaves not rosulate, together with lowermost cauline narrowly oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 1–1.5 cm × 1.5–2.5 mm, entire or 1-toothed, proximally subciliate with few setose trichomes; upper cauline leaves narrower, usually smaller, attenuate to base, not auriculate, margin entire or 1-toothed. Racemes lax, slender, 2–6-flowered, elongated in fruit, rachis straight, stellate pubescent; fruiting pedicels ascending to divaricate, 9–14 mm long, terete, minutely stellate pubescent all around with sessile to subsessile trichomes. Sepals erect, narrowly oblong, 7–8 mm long, minutely pubescent outside with exclusively stellate trichomes, glabrous inside; median pair not saccate at base; lateral pair longer than median, strongly saccate; petals violet, with darker veins, 14–16 mm long; blade obovate, 4–6 × 4–5 mm, flaring, with whitish eye turning violet later; claw erect, white, 8–11 mm long; stamens 6, strongly tetradynamous, white; filaments slightly flattened, median pairs 7–8 mm long, lateral pair 4–5 mm long, with a prominent, distal, tooth-like appendage to 1 mm long; anthers oblong, 1–1.2 mm long; ovules 36–40 per ovary. Fruits linear-oblong, strongly latiseptate, linear in cross section, tapering at both ends, excluding style 1.5–1.7 cm long, 2–2.8 mm wide, length: width ratio 5–7:1; valves uniformly stellate pubescent, with obscure midvein; style 7–8 mm long, slender, stellate pubescent with sessile trichomes along proximal 4–5 mm; stigma entire. Seeds biseriate, pale brown, oblong, ca. 1.1 × 0.8 mm, wingless.

Phenology: —Flowering and fruiting in May.

Etymology: —The species epithet is named after the Turkish province Amasya. It is a noun used in apposition and, therefore, should be maintained according to Article 23.5 of the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi and Plants ( Turland et al., 2018).

Habitat: —Restricted to limestone rocky slopes in association with Onosma ambigens Lacaita , Sempervivum brevipilum Muirhead , Muscari azureum Fenzl , Ornithogalum wiedemannii Boiss. var. wiedemannii , Iris suaveolens Boiss. & Reut. , and Thymus longicaulis subsp. longicaulis C.Presl.

Conservation status: —Only about 20 individuals were observed in the type locality. Due to extensive grazing, and since the distribution range of the species is relatively narrow (less than 10 km 2), we follow the IUCN threat evaluation criteria and propose a CR (B1a+2a) threat category for the species ( IUCN 2019).

Discussion:— Aubrieta amasya resembles the Turkish-endemic A. anamasica Peșmen & Güner (1978: 35) and A. pinardii Boissier (1854: 37) , especially in the narrowly oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate basal and lowermost cauline leaves and in having sparsely setose lower stems with long simple trichomes to 1 mm long. It differs from both by the veinless to faintly veined (vs. distinctly reticulate-veined) fruits and longer styles 7–8 (vs. 2–5) mm long. From the former it differs by having dentate (vs. entire) leaves and from the latter by having shorter fruits (1.5–1.7 vs. 2.2−3.5) cm long. Aubrieta anamasica and A. amasya are narrowly endemic to Isparta and Amasya provinces, respectively, and their ranges are some 550 km apart. By contrast, A. pinardii is widespread in the southern provinces Afyon, Burdur, Isparta, Konya, and Muḡla, and its nearest portion of the range from A. amasya is about 420 km away.

Figures

FIGURE 1.A. Plant. B. Petal.C. Median stamen. D. Lateral Stamen. E. Fruit and fruiting pedicel. Drawn by Al-Shehbaz from the isotype (MO-7011600).

FIGURE 2. Aubrieta amasya. A. Rocky slope showing population of the novelty (arrows). B, C. Closeups of plants and flowers. D. Fruits. E. Leaves.