Cyanus hekimhanensis (Şirin & Yıldırım) Negaresh

7. Cyanus hekimhanensis (Şirin & Yıldırım) Negaresh , comb. nova.

Basionym: Centaurea hekimhanensis Şirin & Yıldırım (2021: 14) View in CoL . Type:— TURKEY. Malatya: SW slopes of the Yamadağı , stony-gravely areas, 2545 m, 19 June 2015, Yıldırım 3974 ( holotype KNYA!, isotype ANK).

Taxonomic notes: —Recently, Şirin et al. (2021) described Centaurea hekimhanensis Şirin & Yıldırım as a new species for the flora of Turkey. They did not place it in Cyanus but, as they did not recognize that genus, they included it in Centaurea . According to them, it is closely related to Cyanus reuterianus . A detailed comparison of the description and type photograph confirms that Centaurea hekimhanensis belongs to Cyanus because of its violet-blue florets, peripheral florets radiant and devoid of staminodes, appendages of phyllaries spineless with scarious margin decurrent nearly to the base. So, based on the current concept of Cyanus , I propose the new combination.

Cyanus hekimhanensis resembles C. reuterianus , which is endemic to Turkey, in life form, habit indumentum and involucre size, but differs by some important characters such as rosette leaves always undivided, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, obtuse at apex ( vs. lyrate with broadly lanceolate to oval or suborbicular terminal segment, rarely undivided, rounded at apex), cauline leaves linear, acute at apex ( vs. lanceolate, obtuse at apex), median appendages 8–11 × 4–5 mm (included cilia) ( vs. 12–12.5 × 2–3 mm), peripheral florets 21–23 mm ( vs. 16–19 mm) long, and also pappus 1.2–1.7 mm ( vs. 0.5–0.6 mm) long.

Distribution: — Cyanus hekimhanensis is a very rare endemic of Malatya Province, S Turkey. It is only known from the type locality in Yamadağı ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 ).