The Iranian Journal of Botany
Volume:17 Issue: 2, Summer and Autumn 2011

Taxonomy of Cousinia sect. Haussknechtianae is revised. The species belonging to this section have limited distribution in high mountainous areas of C, SW and W Iran, and NE Iraq. Due to their late flowering time and remote mountainous areas of distribution, they are poorly known. Thanks to the examination of extensive collections from Zagros mountain range in recent years, species of C. sect. Haussknechtianae are now better known. In this paper three new species, i.e. C. komidjanensis from C Iran, C. curvibracteata from SW Iran and C. rawanduzensis from NE Iraq are described as new to science. A short diagnosis, an English description and an image of holotypes for each of these three new species are given. According to the results, C. sect. Haussknechtianae includes overall eight species endemic to Iran and N Iraq. A synopsis of all species belonging to this section, an identification key to the species and a map of distribution of species are given. In addition, C. hergtiana is here lectotypified.

Description of sect. Albidae Bunge (Cousinia Cass., Asteraceae) is completed based on new data. Five new endemic species belonging to sect. Albidae Bunge are described and photographed. Cousinia bazoftensis, C. assadii, C. yasujensis, and C. oshtorankuhensis are allied to C. archibaldii, C. oligocephala, C. bachtiarica, and C. albida respectively. Among new taxa C. atrobracteata from Azerbaijan province seems to be an isolated species, based on the morphological characters and geographical distribution, and does not have any distinct related species. Cousinia ottonis Bornm. is considered as a new synonym of C. eburnea Bornm. Description of sect. Albidae is completed. A diagnostic key is provided for the section. The species of sect. Albidae have very restricted distribution "exception C. bakhtiarica, C. oligocephala and C. albescens" and can be regarded as vulnerable and endangered species.

Morphological and palynological studies were performed on 16 populations of 8 species of the genus Cousinia sect. Cousinia in Iran, using morphological and pollen characteristics. The ANOVA test showed significant difference for almost all quantitative characters indicating the use of such characters in species delimitation. Trees obtained from morphological characters separated populations of C. microcephala from the other species, while the populations of C. tabrisiana and C. chlorocephala show affinity to each other. The species of C. urumiensis, C. hamosa and C. tenuifolia show affinity to each other and form a separate subcluster and the populations of C. wilhelminae and C. seidlitzii join these species with some distance. However, palynological tree did not agree with morphology tree.

The development of the megagametophyte, embryo and the endosperm in Astragalus eriocarpus (sect. Malacothrix), A. glaucacanthus (sect. Poterion), A. remotijugus (sect. Caprini), A. chrysostachys (sect. Hymenostegis) and A. compactus (sect. Rhacophorus) were examined. The ovule are campylotropous, bitegmic and crassinucellate; integuments form a zig-zag shaped microphyle. The embryogenesis was similar in the species. Megagametophyte development follows the monosporic Polygonum type and the embryo development follows the Onagrad type. The fusion of the polar nuclei, development of the endosperm, digestion of the nucellus, seed abortion and suspensor development show major differences among studied species. Furthermore, the size and shape of the suspensor is quite variable among the five species. These characters are compared with the other species of Astragalus and also their phylogenetic significance is discussed. Also we describe a case of polyembryony for the first time in A. remotijugus.

Astragalus gamishluensis (Fabaceae) is described from Iran. It belongs to Astragalus sect. Ammodenderon due to its medifixed hairs, suffruticose habit and few pairs of leaflets. It resembles A. podoloboides, A. erwinii-gaubae and A. podolobus, from which it differs mainly in color of corolla, leaflets indumentums, length of stipe and indumentums of it and pod indumentums.

During investigation on the genus Astragalus L., in various geographical regions of Iran, a new species (A. montismishoudaghi) was recognized and thus described here. This new species is closely related to A. ledinghamii, with some morphological differences and a great geographical disjunction.

The present communication pertains to twenty two species of Nepeta recorded from the Kashmir Himalaya. Out of these twelve species were recorded from Kashmir region and eleven from Ladakh region. One species i.e. N. salviaefolia is common to both the regions. All the species are perennial but for N. annua, which is an annual. A taxonomic account of all the species, following recent nomenclature has been presented herewith.

The taxonomic status of the two species previously treated as Nardurus subulatus (now Loliolum subulatum) and Nardurus maritimus (now Vulpia unilateralis) are reviewed and improved according to the latest classifications for these taxa. A critical study of 30 herbarium specimens and 490 plant individuals collected all around Iran were studied based on the morphological and cytological characters. Cytological analysis showed that 2n = 2x = 14 and all karyotype symmetry indices indicated symmetric karyotypes for both species with metacentric chromosomes. This is the first report on chromosome number of Loliolum subulatum. Two species were clearly separated by morphological data and a close relationship between both species and two species of Vulpia (V. persica and V. hirtiglomis), used as controls, was observed. Regarding high similarity between Loliolum subulatum and the species of Vulpia we propose to transfer this species to the genus Vulpia.

Limited numbers of microsatellite markers are available for genetic characterization of Hordeum bulbosum which comprises the secondary genepool of cultivated barely. The objective of this study was to evaluate the transferability of microsatellite markers from H. vulgare to H. bulbosum and a preliminary evaluation of their polymorphism. From ninety-three pairs barley SSR primer tested for transferability, all of them amplified DNA segments in H. vulgare (11 accessions) and 48 pairs (51.61%) were transferable to the H. bulbosum (5 accessions) with high level of polymorphism. Twenty-two (23.65%) SSR markers showed transferability to H. murinum used as outgroup. A total of 546 alleles were detected by 48 transferred primer pairs in all accessions. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 13 with an average of 11.375 alleles per locus. The PIC values were ranged from 0.161 to 0.621 with an average of 0.477. The value of PIC in H. vulgare (average PIC = 0.639) was significantly higher than H. bulbosum (average PIC = 0.316). In dendrogram generated based on SSR data accessions were divided into groups related to their taxonomic classifications, indicating the efficiency of barley SSRs for phylogenetic analyses in H genome containing species in the genus Hordeum. Based on the results of this study, it can be suggested that the cross species transferable barley SSRs are valuable molecular tools, for genetic diversity analyses in the H. bulbosum for which limited number of microsatellite markers are available. This study provided a set of efficient SSR markers from publicly available barley microsatellite markers for the genetic characterization of H. bulbosum.

In this research, the taxonomic status of the genus Cynosurus in Iran has been briefly reviewed. The results showed that two species Cynosurus echinatus L. and C. effusus Desf. are growing in Iran. A total of 13 herbarium and new collected specimens belonging to this genus were analyzed using 61 qualitative and quantitative morphological characters. A taxonomic key, descriptions and habitats of two species with images has been presented. Also, characteristics of the karyotype of C. echinatus is provided.

A progressive revision of the Iranian material belonging to Minuartia L. (Caryophyllaceae) led to the recognition of a new species Minuartia sabalanica based on the material from NW Iran. The new species is morphologically related to M. rimarum, an endemic only known from the central and southern Turkey, and M. umbellulifera known from Turkey and Iran. Diagnostic characters of the new species are discussed. In addition, a Latin diagnosis, description and illustration of the new species are given.

Gaillonia dezfulensis is described as a new species from Salan mountain in N. Dezful, Khuzestan province. The new species is distinguished by having opposite apparently three lobed leaves. It is compared with its closest relative Gaillonia bruguieri A. Rich.ex DC., and G. kandharensis Ehrend.& Qarar ex Ehrend. & Schonb.

For the preparation of Flora of Iran (Potamogetonaceae), Potamogeton alpinus was collected from Gahar lake (Lorestan province) and is reported as a new record for Iranian flora.

Pollen morphology of four taxa of the genus Carpinus growing in Iran was examined, using light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The main aim of this study is to determine the pollen morphology of this genus in Iran and finding the pollen characteristics. The pollen grains are triporate, tetraporate and pentaporate and more or less subprolate. The shape of pores are more or less circular, the surface sculpture of exine is irregularly cone-shaped and the apex is pointed. C. orientalis Miller subsp. macrocarpa (Willk.) Browicz and C. betulus var. parva have the largest and smallest pollen size (mean = 35.18 ± 3.96 µm) and (mean = 24.95 ± 0.18 µm), respectively.

During study of the flora of Chatkal Mt., SW Tien Shan, Uzbekistan, two new record species were recognized for the flora of Uzbekistan. These species are Atraphaxis laetevirens (Ledeb.) Jaub. et Spach (Polygonaceae) and Noccaea ferganensis (N. Busch) Czerep. (Brassicaceae). Photos of herbarium specimens of these species are provided.

This study represents phylogenetic analyses of nrDNA ITS for 62 accessions of 55 Salix species and two Populus species as outgroups using maximum parsimony and Bayesian methods. A subset of 14 species of Salix sampled for nrDNA ITS was included in a phylogenetic analysis using trnL-F region. The resulting nrDNA ITS phylogeny revealed that all five currently recognized Salix subgenera except the monotypic subgenus Longifoliae are not monophyletic. Likewise, most of Salix sections are not monophyletic. The analysis showed that Salix humboldtiana, native to South America and Mexico, positioned at the base of the tree as sister to the remaining Salix species. The Iranian Salix species are scattered across the tree. Several polymorphic nucleotide sites of nrDNA ITS were detected for Salix zygostemon, S. acmophylla and S. elymaitica. This indicates that these taxa may have a hybrid origin. In the case of Salix zygostemon, trnL-F data showed that it was nested a polytomy containing S. cinerea and S. elbursensis. While on the nrDNA tree, its position is unclear. Meanwhile, the data suggested that Salix may have been originated in warm temperate regions of the new world and then diversified in both warm and cold temperate regions of northern hemisphere.

Solanum sisymbriifolium Lam. (Solanacaeae) is reported as a new record for Iranian flora and an illustration of it is given.

In this study, a new morphospecies, Hapalosiphon fontinalis (C. Agardh) Bornet (Stigonemataceae, Stigonematales) is reported for Iran. Identification was done in a multidisciplinary way including morphological variations in relation to pH and carbon dioxide concentration fluctuations at limited irradiance (2 μE m-2 s-1). Regarding biological versatility of Cyanophyta, it has been tried to emphasize on the most prominent traits for identification and determination. A new description of the species has been presented regarding morphological characterization in Golestan Province.

The aim of this project is to find diagnostic characters from anatomical features for species separation in Oryzopsis s. l. in Iran. Leaf anatomical structures (dorsal epidermis and cross section at the middle of leaf) of 10 species from Oryzopsis s. l. were studied for the first time. In this research, 43 quantitative and qualitative characters in 23 populations were measured and evaluated. These characters were varied among species, but stable between specimens of one species. Observed variations were investigated using statistical methods (PCA, NJ, UPGMA). Factor analysis based on principle component analysis revealed that most variable characters among Oryzopsis s. l. species are the number and shape of short cells, long cells shape, form of long cells walls, situation of short cells, shape of bulliform cells, length and number of long cells, number of vascular bundles, radial differentiation in mesophyll, sclerification of inner bundle sheath cells, width of silica bodies, presence or absence of macrohairs in adaxial surface and shape of abaxial surface. In addition, an identification key using anatomical characters is presented for Oryzopsis s. l. species in Iran.

Morphology, anatomy, chemistry and distribution of the species Rhizocarpon viridiatrum (Rhizocarpaceae, Lichenized Fungi) in NE Iran are presented based on observations from 357 samples collected in Razavi Khorasan province during 2006-2007, an analysis of lichen substances and a literature survey.