Crocus yaseminiae O.Erol, 2014

Erol, Osman, Can, Levent & Küçüker, Orhan, 2014, Crocus yaseminiae (Iridaceae) a new species from South Anatolia, Turkey, Phytotaxa 188 (2), pp. 103-111 : 108-109

Crocus yaseminiae O.Erol sp. nov. ( Figs. 3a–b , 4a–b )

Crocus yaseminiae sp. nov. a C. isaurico antheris nigricantibus tenuibus ad apicem acutis atque lobis acutis instructis, tunicis cormorum papyraceis, annulis basalibus dentibus brevioribus, tepalis interioribus albis ad apicem lilacinis (non omnino lilacinis purpureisve), floribus odorem Trigonellae exhalentibus differt.

Type:— TURKEY. North of Alanya , open areas in Juniperus wood 1623 m, 21 February 2014, O . Erol SF 86 (holotype, ISTF 40105 !) .

Corm; length 12–17 mm (mean = 14 mm), width 9–18 mm (mean = 13.5 mm) diameter; tunics papery rarely coriaceous, no parallel splits present, basal rings always have teeth 0.17–0.55 mm in length (mean = 0.38) (n = 10). Cataphylls silvery-white even on drying (n = 20). Leaves, 3–6 (mean = 4.3) silvery green, 0.5–1 mm in diameter, glabrous, white stripe less than 1/3 of leaf-diameter, 1 or 2 prominent ribs (n = 20). Leaves at anthesis are shorter than flowers. Throat is yellow, no hair. Perigone tube white, with purple stripes. Outer segments are between 17–25 mm (mean = 21.5 mm) in length (n = 10), between 7–10 mm (mean = 8 mm) in width (n = 10). Inner segments between 17–25 mm (mean = 20 mm) long, between 5–10 mm mean 7.6 mm wide (n = 10). Inside of outer segments light lilac, deep lilac to purple towards to apex sometimes wholly white. Inside of inner segments are white, lilac towards to apex. Outside of outer segments is white to lilac, sometimes white with five prominent stripes with irregular fine veins. Outside of inner perigone segments white, light lilac towards to apex, sometimes with fine dots. Throat dark yellow, glabrous. Prophyll absent. Bract and bracteole present, silvery, skinny; bract is always larger than bracteole. Filaments, 4–6 mm (mean = 5.1 mm) (n = 12), bright orange, glabrous. Anthers very slender, 7–11 mm (mean = 9.7 mm) (n = 20), greyish-black before open, rarely yellow (10%) (after dehiscence, pollen quickly dye yellow and cover anther because of its slender habit), lobes and apex end acutely. Connective, white to greyish, pollen yellow. Style brightly orange-red, always divided into 3 branches, not prominently widened at apex; branches always 5 mm long. Styles according to stamen in 75% shorter to equal, in 25% longer. Capsule and seeds were not seen.

Etymology:— Named after Mrs. Yasemin Konuralp ( Turkey), author of a book on Turkish bulbous plants ( Konuralp 2013). She actually was the person who urged us to search for it and was the one who spotted the first specimen of this crocus during our joint expedition.

Taxonomic relationships:— The closest geographical neighbour of the new species is Crocus isauricus , as well as the closest relative according to its overall appearance. We observed, besides the very interesting character of fenugreek odour, that the new species differs from the other five “ C. isauricus group” taxa by the diagnostic features of papery corm tunics ( Fig. 4 ), slender and blackish anthers with acutely ending lobes and tips, darker and bright lilac colour on the tips of the inner tepals ( Fig. 3 ). Most Crocu s flowers are honey and sweet scented and predominantly pollinated by bees and hoverflies ( Syrphidae ) ( Mathew, 1982). However, there are a few which are not honey scented, such as C. graveolens Boiss. & Reut. in Boissier (1882: 107) (Bowles 1952) or C. biflorus subsp. pseudonubigena Mathew (1982: 83) ( Mathew 1982) . For these taxa the scent of the flower was used as an additional distinctive character. Also the flowers C. yaseminiae , have a characteristic scent. Probably, the flowers are not only visited by bees but also pollinated by Oxythyrea cinctella Schaum (1841: 38) . The presence of fenugreek scented flowers, is a novel character for Crocus as described to date. Remarkable diagnostic characters such as a scent are important in the genus Crocus . Almost half of the known taxa were described in the last three decades, systematics and taxonomy are unresolved and newly described taxa, although published with a detailed description, often lack identification keys (e.g. Kerndorff & Pasche 2011, Kerndorff et al. 2012, Kerndorff et al. 2013a, Kerndorff et al. 2013b).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Habit of Crocus yaseminiae sp. nov. from type locality (a, b) and C. isauricus from Alacabel pass—Between Antalya and Konya provinces (c), Gembos Yayla-Ibradi, Antalya province (d).

FIGURE 4. Corm tunic parts of Crocus yaseminiae sp. nov. (a, b) and Crocus isauricus (c, d); left: outer tunic part, right: basal ring and teeth.