Centaurea kamyaranensis Ranjbar & Negaresh (2014b: 322)

Negaresh, Kazem & Rahiminejad, Mohammad Reza, 2018, A revision of Centaurea sect. Cynaroides (Asteraceae, Cardueae-Centaureinae), Phytotaxa 363 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

20. Centaurea kamyaranensis Ranjbar & Negaresh (2014b: 322) . Type:— IRAN. Prov. Kermanshah: Kamyaran, 5 km to Ravansar , Bave Geh village , 1418 m, 31 June 2012, Ranjbar & Negaresh 28802 (holotype BASU!). ( Fig. 45 )

Biennial plants, whole plant usually green, 130–140 cm tall; collum neck with fibrous remnants of petioles from previous year. Stem stout, erect, usually simple, greenish, ca. 17 mm in diam. at base, cylindrical, finely white-striate, densely leafy in median part, lower portion reddish and glabrous, sometimes sparsely covered with arachnoid hairs, median part ± densely covered with hirsute-articulate hairs, mixed with arachnoid and sessile gland hairs, upper portion ± sparsely covered with arachnoid and sessile gland hairs. Leaves rigid, papyraceous (on drying), covered with hirsute-articulate hairs, denser along midrib and veins, up to 1.5 mm long, and with sessile minute glandular hairs, subscabrous, veins prominent on both sides. Basal leaves unknown. Lower cauline leaves simple, 25–32 × 12–14 cm, broadly ovate or ovate-lanceolate or subcordate, petiole 7.5–9.5 cm long, with basal auricles, entire, rarely denticulate, acute at apex. Median cauline leaves sessile, pandurate or broadly oblanceolate or oblong, 13–24.5 × 5–13 cm, ± densely covered with hirsute-articulate hairs, sometimes mixed with arachnoid hairs, decurrent, up to 23 mm along stem, entire, acute at apex. Upper cauline leaves increasingly smaller, sessile, lanceolate, sometimes bract-like, 4.5–12.5 × 0.6–3 cm, with ± densely arachnoid-pubescent hairs, up to 6 mm long, decurrent up to 25 mm along stem, elongated acuminate at apex. Capitula numerous, 14 to 16, arranged in a raceme, upper capitula on peduncles ca. 23 cm long, sometimes with bracts similar to phyllaries with small stramineous and chaffy appendages. Involucres globose or globose to conical, convex at base, 40–50 × 40–50 mm. Phyllaries multiseriate, green, reddish above, imbricate, coriaceous to scarious, densely floccose-tomentose. Appendages partially concealing phyllaries, rigid or chartaceous, not decurrent, ± patent; cilia narrowly triangular, subreflexed, 2–7(–9) on each side, 2–5(–6) mm long; spines narrowly triangular, much longer than adjacent cilia. Outer phyllaries ovate to oblong, 4–8.5 × 6–7 mm; appendages elongate triangular, 12–16 × 8–10 mm (including cilia and spine), straw-coloured to pale purple. Median phyllaries broadly lanceolate, 11–14 × 9–11 mm; appendages narrowly triangular, 17–21 × 10–11 mm (including cilia and spine), gradually narrowing into a 7–10 mm spine, purple. Inner phyllaries lanceolate or linear, 18.5–26 × 9.5–10.5 mm; appendages narrowly oblong, 16–20 × 4–10 mm (including cilia and spine), gradually narrowing into a 8–12 mm spine, deeply purple. Flowers white in vivo, yellow in sicco; central florets hermaphroditic, 37–42 mm long, corolla ± 18 mm long, 5-lobed, lobes 7–9 mm long, with yellowish nerves, anther tube pink, shorter than or equal to corolla, with apical appendages acute, stigma exserted from corolla, up to 4 mm; peripheral florets sterile, few (?), shorter than central ones, finely dissected, not radiant, 4-lobed, limb lobe linear, 6.5–7 mm long. Achenes immature; pappus persistent, multiseriate, scabrous, white, ca. 13–13.5 mm long.

Taxonomic and distribution remarks: — Centaurea kamyaranensis is a very rare endemic of Kermanshah Province, W Iran ( Fig. 43 ). It is an Irano-Turanian element, and grows on fallow fields and roadsides, at elevations of 1400–1450 m ( Ranjbar & Negaresh 2014b). Centaurea kamyaranensis is only known from the type locality (Bave Geh village, Ravansar city) in Shahu Mountains. Ranjbar & Negaresh (2014b) stated that this species is closely related to C. regia but can be easily distinguished from the latter by white flowers, smaller and reflexed appendages and long peduncles. Centaurea kamyaranensis by the same characters also differs from the other purple-flowering species of C. sect. Cynaroides . It seems that it is difficult to make a statement about the affinity of C. kamyaranensis to other species of the section.

Chromosome numbers: —Unknown.

Figures

FIGURE 43. Distribution of Centaurea kabirkuhensis (circles), C. kamalnejadii (squares), and C. kamyaranensis (triangles).

FIGURE 45. Centaurea kamyaranensis Ranjbar & Negaresh (Ranjbar & Negaresh 28802, BASU). A. close up of capitule. B. median cauline leaves. C. inflorescence. D. habit and habitat. Scale A, C, D = 2 cm, B = 3 cm.