Hedysarum marashicum T. Ertuğrul & E. Bağ, 2025

Ertuğrul, Tuğba, Fişne, Ahter, Ateş, Mevlüde Alev & Bağ, Ecem, 2025, Hedysarum marashicum (Fabaceae), a new species from Turkey, Phytotaxa 704 (1), pp. 18-34 : 21-26

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.704.1.2

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03CB2F62-3A10-FFD9-9CBC-F5BA5E40B222

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Hedysarum marashicum T. Ertuğrul & E. Bağ
status

sp. nov.

Hedysarum marashicum T. Ertuğrul & E. Bağ sp. nov. Sect. Multicaulia ( Figure 1–3 View FIGURE 1 View FIGURE 2 View FIGURE 3 ).

Type:— Turkey. Kahramanmaraş: Afşin, Osmanoğlu Plateau, rocky limestone, 2385–2400 m, 30 June 2024, T. Ertuğrul 2947 and E. Bağ ( holotype GAZI, isotypes ANK, HUB).

Paratype:— Turkey. Kahramanmaraş: Afşin, Osmanoğlu Plateau, rocky limestone, 2385–2400 m, 11 August 2024, T. Ertuğrul 2958 and E. Bağ.

Diagnosis: This new species is morphologically similar to H. erythroleucum but can be distinguished by the whole plant being loosely adpressed sericeous with a greenish appearance (vs. densely adpressed sericeous with a greyish-whitish appearance), ascending to erect, branched near the base and 4–5 cm long stem (vs. not branched and absent or very short stem), longer stipule ( 7–10 mm vs. 3 mm), obovate–oblong, bigger (8–12 × 4–6 mm), densely sericeous whitish below and sparsely sericeous greenish above leaflets (vs. ovate–rounded, smaller (4–7 × 3–4 mm), very densely sericeous whitish on both surfaces leaflets), more flowered (5–10) inflorescence (vs. 3–5 flowered), longer peduncle ( 10–15 cm vs. 3–10 cm), longer bract and bracteole ( 5–7 mm and 4–5 mm vs. 3 mm and 1–2 mm), bigger calyx 8–9 mm long, teeth 5–6 mm (vs. calyx 5–8 mm long, teeth 4–5 mm), bright pink corolla (vs. intensely purple corolla), 17–20 × 11–13 mm, obovate to oblanceolate standard (vs. 8–15 × 8–11 mm, obovate standard), longer keel (16–18,5 mm vs. 9–13 mm), wings 12–15 × 5 mm, broadly angled and obtuse at apex (vs. wings 8–12 (–14) × 3–4 mm, ligulate, rounded at apex), pods 1–2 jointed and joints 4–4,7 × 3,8– 4 mm, densely pubescent (vs. pods 1–3 jointed and joints 6 × 5 mm, pilose) ( Table 1).

Description: Perennial herbs; stem extremely short, ascending to erect, 4–5 cm long, branched near the base, loosely adpressed sericeous, greenish. Stipules scarious, united 2–toothed, 7–10 mm. Leaves imparipinnate, 2.5–4.5 cm long; leaflets 3–4 pairs, obovate–oblong, mucronulate, 8–12 × 4–6 mm, densely whitish sericeous below and loosely sericeous above, greenish. Inflorescence capitate, 5–10–flowered, 1.5–3.5 cm long; peduncles 10–15 cm long, much longer than leaves. Bracts 1, lanceolate, membranous with brown midvein, 5–7 mm long, spreading white hairy. Bracteoles 2, subulate, brown, 4–5 mm long, spreading white hairy. Calyx campanulate, 8–9 mm long, sericeous; teeth unequal, two of them subulate and three of them narrowly subulate, 5–6 mm long, calyx teeth 1–3 times as long as the tube. Corolla bright pink; standard glabrous, 17–20 × 11–13 mm, obovate to oblanceolate, emarginate, attenuate at base; wings 12–15 × 5 mm, broadly angled and obtuse at apex, two-thirds to nearly equal the length of the keel; keels 16–18.5 mm long, shorter than standard. Stamen diadelphous, 15–17,5 mm. Ovary linear, 5–6 mm adpressed hairy. Pods 1–2 jointed; joints orbicular with prominent transverse nervation, 4–4.7 × 3.8–4 mm; densely pubescent, without setae. Seeds reniform, 3.3 × 3 mm, rugulate-reticulate, dark brown.

Phenology: Flowering in June–July and fruiting in August.

FIGURE 4. Distribution map of H. marashicum (●), H. erythroleucum (★).

Distribution and Ecology: The new species grows in Southeastern Anatolia, around Kahramanmaraş province. It is an endemic and Irano-Turanian element (Figure 4). H. marashicum grows on open calcareous slopes on high mountain steppe together with Marrubium astracanicum Jacq. , Marrubium globosum Montbret & Aucher ex Benth. , Astragalus microcephalus Willd. , Thymus sp. , Silene odontopetala Fenzl , Verbascum sp. , Medicago sp. , Festuca sp. , Poa sp. , Carduus nutans L., Scrophularia sp. , Anthemis sp.

Conservation status: The newly discovered species is currently identified at a single location in Kahramanmaraş. The population comprises fewer than 50 individuals, and both the extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO) measure less than 4 km 2 (calculated using ArcGIS and spatial analysis programs). The AOO, coupled with declining habitat quality due to intensive grazing, categorizes the species as “critically endangered” CR B1ab (i, ii, iii, v) + 2ab (i, ii, iii, v), D1 (IUCN 2022).

Etymology: The scientific epithet of the new species is derived from Kahramanmaraş Province, the location where the type specimen was collected. We suggest the vernacular name “Maraş Batalağı” for Hedysarum marashicum ( Menemen et al. 2016) .

Pollen Morphology: The pollen grains of H. marashicum and H. erythroleucum are isopolar, symmetric, and tricolpate. Pollen grains are triangular-obtuse in polar view and rectangular-obtuse ( H. marashicum ) to elliptic ( H. erythroleucum ) in equatorial view. The pollen shape is subprolate (P/E:1.15) in H. marashicum while prolate (P/ E:1.42) in H. erythroleucum . The pollen size of H. marashicum is P: 19.1 ± 1.59 μm, E: 16.58 ± 0.98 μm and P: 21.90 ± 0.98 μm, E: 15.35 ± 0.63 μm in H. erythroleucum . Ectocolpi is long and shallow with acute ends. The colpus membrane is covered by large and small sculptural elements in both taxa. Colpus length (Clg) is 19.32 ± 0.95 μm, and colpus width (Clt) is 2.1 ± 0.94 in H. marashicum and 21.08 ± 0.94 and 3.1 ± 1.01 in H. erythroleucum . Exine ornamentation is reticulate in both the equatorial and polar views. The reticules at the edge of the colpus and in the polar area are smaller than in the mesocolpium region. In addition to this, lumina diameter of the reticules in the mesocolpium of H. marashicum is shorter than that of H. erythroleucum ( Table 2, Figure 5 View FIGURE 5 ). Apocolpium diameter (t) is 6.00 ± 0.42 μm in H. marashicum while 3.45 ± 0.44 in H. erythroleucum . Detailed pollen morphological characters of the examined two taxa are given in Table 2.

Fruit and Seed Morphology: Mature lomentums of H. marashicum have 1–2 joints; joints orbicular with prominent transverse nervation, 4–4.7 × 3.8–4 mm; densely pubescent, without setae. Mature seeds are reniform, 3.3 × 3 mm, dark brown, seed surface ornamentation is rugulate-reticulate ( Figure 6 View FIGURE 6 ).

Phylogeny: ITS sequences were obtained as a total of 640 bp in length (after the exclusion of gap-rich and ambiguous bases), and 52 of them were variable. Moreover, trn L-F sequences (after exclusion of gap-rich and ambiguous bases) were obtained as 799 bp in length, and 60 of them were variable among Hedysarum species. Overall mean genetic divergence among species based on ITS, and trn L-F regions were calculated as 0.020 and 0.030, respectively (All statistic values were given in the Table 3). According to phylogenetic tree which was constructed by using ITS region ( Figure 7 View FIGURE 7 ), there are 2 main clusters with a bootstrap value of 98 and a posterior probability value of 1. One of the cluster is composed of H.syriacum and H.huteii species and other cluster composed of other studied species ( H.sericeum , H.elegans , H.cappadocicum ) additional with newly discovered species ( Hedysarum sp ) and morphologically closely related species, H. erythroleucum . In the phylogenetic tree the newly named species Hedysarum sp was separated from other species with sufficient bootstrap and pp values (98 & 1 respectively). Even if overall mean genetic divergence is higher than ITS region genetic divergence value, the phylogenetic tree of trn L-F region ( Figure 8 View FIGURE 8 ) indicates phylogenetic separations parallel with ITS gene region data. Again, Hedysarum species are divided into two main clusters (bs 100 & pp 1). One of the clusters included H.huteii and H.syriacum ; the other cluster was composed of other studied samples. Like ITS region tree newly named Hedysarum sp. was positioned under same subcluster with H. erythroleucum species but separated from this with sufficient values (100 bs& 1 pp).

T

Tavera, Department of Geology and Geophysics

E

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

GAZI

Gazi Üniversitesi

ANK

Ankara Üniversitesi

HUB

Hacettepe University

Kingdom

Plantae

Phylum

Tracheophyta

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Fabales

Family

Fabaceae

Genus

Hedysarum

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