Centaurea hellwigii Ranjbar & Negaresh, 2013

Ranjbar, Massoud & Negaresh, Kazem, 2013, A revision of Centaurea sect. Phaeopappus (Asteraceae, Cardueae), Phytotaxa 123 (1), pp. 1-40 : 17

7. Centaurea hellwigii Ranjbar & Negaresh , nom. nov. Fig. 8 .

Replaced synonym: Phaeopappus araneosus Boissier (1875: 598) . Tomanthea araneosa (Boiss.) Takhtajan (1939: 241) . Centaurea spectabilis (Fisch. & C. A. Mey.) Sch. Bip. var. araneosa (Boiss.) Wagenitz (1963: 178) . Type: ARMENIA. Unde loco non indicato semina e quibus planta descripta educata fuit retulit, July 1864, Kotschy s.n. (lectotype G!, designated by Wagenitz 1963: 178, isolectotypes: G!: 5 sheets, photo BASU!).

Perennial plants, usually completely grayish, 30–70 cm tall, densely covered with arachnoid-canescent hairs; collum covered with abundant brown fibrous remains of petioles of previous year. Stem erect, simple, never branched, monocephalous, cylindrical, rigid, ca. 5 mm in diam. at the base. Leaves always undivided, margins entire, cauline leaves obtuse to subacute at apex. Basal and lower leaves simple, distinctly large, 22–40 × 8–11 cm, broadly oblong or lanceolate-oblong, attenuate towards petiole. Median and upper cauline leaves sessile, simple, 5.4–20 × 2.2–8 cm, broadly lanceolate to elliptic or lanceolate, not decurrent, uppermost shorter than capitula. Capitula 1 on peduncles 20–25 mm long; involucres ovoid, large, 25–27 × ca. 30 mm. Phyllaries multiseriate, imbricate, coriaceous, yellowish, smooth and glabrous. Appendages only concealing basal part of phyllaries, straw-coloured to light brown; cilia numerous, 4–8(–10) on each side, 2–4 mm long; spine equal to the nearest cilia. Flowers yellow; central florets hermaphrodite, ca. 27 mm long, corolla ca. 15–18 mm long, anther tube pink; peripheral florets sterile, finely dissected, not radiant. Achenes oblong, brownish, glabrous, 6.5–7.5 mm long. Pappus 12–14 mm long, scabrous, brown.

Etymology: —The specific epithet is given in honour of Prof. Dr. Frank H. Hellwig, who worked on different genera of the family Asteraceae .

Nomenclatural notes: —The epithet “araneosa” is unavailable in Centaurea , for which reason the new name is coined.

Taxonomic and distributional remarks: — Centaurea hellwigii generally occurs in E Turkey and Armenia. It is an Irano-Turanian element, and known only from the mid-montane zone ( Wagenitz 1975). Centaurea hellwigii grows on meadows and meadow-steppe slopes, among scattered shrubs or in forest steppe. It is little known and apparently rare in field ( Wagenitz 1975). Centaurea hellwigii is similar to C. spectabilis in the color of flowers and size of achenes. Boissier (1875) was the first person who recognized this species as Phaeopappus araneosus . According to him, this species is similar to Phaeopappus (Centaurea) spectabilis but distinguished by having all its leaves undivided and obtuse to subacute at apex and by arachnoid-canescent indumentum. Takhtajan (1939) classified P. araneosus under the genus Tomanthea , but Wagenitz (1963) reduced it to a variety of C. spectabilis . Centaurea hellwigii differs from it in some important characters (see Table 4), and its subordination to C. spectabilis seems to be erroneous.

Chromosome number: —Unknown.

Selected specimen examined:— TURKEY. B9 Bitlis: 5 km N of Bitlis, 2100 m, 5 July 1951, Renz s.n. (E!); Nemrut, 2500 m, 27 June 1972, A. Tatli 305 (E!) .

Figures

FIGURE 8. Centaurea hellwigii Ranjbar & Negaresh (Kotschy s.n., G). A. habit. B. close up of capitule.