Bellardiochloa doganiana Cabi & Soreng, 2015

Cabi, Evren, Soreng, Robert John, Çingay, Burçin & Karabacak, Ersin, 2015, A new species of Bellardiochloa, B. doganiana (Poaceae), from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey, Phytotaxa 205 (2), pp. 123-128 : 125-127

Bellardiochloa doganiana Cabi & Soreng , sp. nov. ( Figs. 1–3 )

Type:— TURKEY. Konya, Bozkır, Palaz Dağları, steep slopes on northwest side of pass to Hacıobası, 2015 m, 37.04410° N, 32.09117° E, 25 July 2014, R. J. Soreng 8861, E.Cabi & B.Çıngay (holotype US -3675264, isotypes ANK!, B, CAN, E, G, HAOC, ISTE, K, KNYA, LE, NAKU, W).

The new species differs from all other Bellardiochloa species in its dense tuft of short stiff, arching, terete, pungent-tipped, basal leaf–blades, conical panicles with numerous branches per node, with mostly 1 or 2 spikelets per branch, and pedicels as long as or longer than the spikelets.

Perennial, densely tufted, tufts small, with numerous crowded, short basal leaves and few culms. Culms (12–)20–25(–38) cm tall, slender, with usually one node exposed, smooth, with purplish striations where exposed. Leaves: sheaths of basal leaves short (mostly less than 1 cm long), thin, papery, smooth, glabrous, upper culm sheaths scabrous distally, hooks mostly antrorse, uppermost culm sheath 7.2–8.7 cm long, with margins fused at the base for 1–1.5 mm; ligules of upper culm leaf 3–4 mm long, membranous, longer on the margins than the center, shallowly lacerate to erose, minutely asperous on the margin, broadly decurrent; blades of basal leaves (1.5–)2–2.5(–3) cm long, 0.8–1.5(– 2) mm wide (as folded, involute, terete to elliptical in cross-section, thick, indurate, bright light green, shiny, straight or arched, abaxially smooth, margins very finely scabrous, abaxially hispidulous over deep valleys and ridges, apically pungent, culm leaf blades 1–2.5(–4) cm long, thinner than the basal ones, abaxially antrorsely scabrous distally.

Panicles (6–)7.5–11(–12) cm long, erect, conical, open, sparsely flowered, lower internodes 1.3–2.5(–3.2) cm long; peduncle (9–) 11–20 cm long; branches whorled, (3–)5–9(–11) at the lower nodes, ascending to spreading, moderately scabrous with hooks distributed more or less evenly around the subterete to weakly angled surfaces; longest branches (2–)3–5(–6), with 1–2(–4) spikelets, pedicels 4–20 mm long, equaling or longer than their spikelets. Spikelets (4–)4.5– 5.5(–6) mm long, (1) 2–3 flowered, narrowly lanceolate; glumes weakly keeled with broad scarious margins, margins (edges) lightly scabrous to nearly smooth, abaxially smooth and glabrous, slightly lustrous, apex of the glume slightly obtuse and asperous in the margin or acute and sharply pointed, unequal (first glume 1–1.5 mm shorter than the second glume), first glume 3–3.8 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, 1–veined, second glume 3.5–4.2 mm long, lanceolate; rachilla internodes 1 mm, terete, scabrous to pubescent with stiff hairs to 0.15 mm; callus of rachilla joint and lemma base with stiff hairs to about 0.5 mm long, upper rachilla extension (to sterile rudiment) 1.5–3 mm; lemmas 4 to 5 mm, awned, awn scabrous, 0.4–1.5 mm long on at least some florets within spikelets, lemmas round on back, 5–veined; mostly smooth and glabrous, or central nerve, and sometimes the sides near the base, with sparse hairs to 0.5 mm long up to the lower 2/5 th, lower margins involute, upper margins sparsely scaberulous, body proximally herbaceous, purplish, moderately muriculate to sparsely scabridulous, the upper margin scarious–hyaline, lightly scaberulous, apical margin slight erose or entire, scaberulous in the margin; paleas subequal to lemmas, scarious for the most part, keels scabrous from the middle. Flowers bisexual; lodicules 1 mm long, with a lateral lobe in the upper 1/3rd, purplish distally, apical margin with 1 or 2 prickles; anthers 3, 2.5–3 mm long; Ovary glabrous, styles apical, approximate, lanceolate in outline, plumose with short secondary branching, caryopsis 2.6–2.9 mm long, fusiform in lateral view, shallowly sulcate, pale cream colour with purple tinge near the apex, glabrous, endosperm soft (with lipid), hilum ovate, 0.5 mm long.

Etymology: —The new Bellardiochloa species is named in honor of the Turkish botanist Prof. Dr. Musa Doğan for his extensive contributions to the flora of Turkey and grasses in particular and teaching many students the joys of the botanical world. (In Turkish the letter “ğ” is silent and could be phonetically rendered as a soft h in Latin, but we decided to retain the ğ as g to more nearly match the spelling.)

Distribution: —Apparently endemic to the Palaz Dağları, a mountain range along the shared eastern Antalya and south–western Konya regional border in Turkey ( Fig. 4 ).

Habitat: —High Astragalus Linnaeus (1753b: 755) steppe to low subalpine, on limestone and mixed sedimentary rocks, 2000–2300 m.

Additional specimens examined:— TURKEY. Konya: Bozkır, Kızılot Yayla, 1700 m, 12 June 1968, R.Çetik, T.Ekim, G.Yurdakul 271 (ANK 1140); Antalya: Gündoğmuþ, Palaz Dağları, steep, slopes on east side of Geyik Dağı, ca. 2270 m, 36.88479° N, 32.19690° E, limestone, east facing slope with low shrub grass steppe community, with Astragalus, Euphorbia Linnaeus (1753a: 450) , Daphne Linnaeus (1753a: 356) , Melica Linnaeus (1753a: 66) , Bromus Linnaeus (1753a: 76) , Festuca , Poa thessala Boissier & Orphanides in Boissier (1859: 135), 25 July 2014, R.Soreng 8871, E.Cabi & B.Çıngay.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Bellardiochloa doganiana. a). habit; b). inflorescence; c). spikelet; d). first glume; e). second glume; f). floret lateral view; g). palea; h). caryopsis ventral view, with hilum; i). caryopsis dorsal view; j). detail of upper culm leaf sheath and ligule. Scale bar: 1 cm for A and B, 1 mm for C to J. Drawn by E.Karabacak from R.J.Soreng 8861.

FIGURE 2. Bellardiochloa doganiana photos taken at the type locality.a) habit, b) inflorescence, c) sterile basal tuft of leaves.Photographs taken by Evren Cabi.

FIGURE 3. Bellardiochloa doganiana spikelet photos. a) spikelet, b) lemma, c) glumes.

FIGURE 4. Distribution of Bellardiochloa species in Turkey.▲B. carica, ♦B. argaea, ●B. polychroa, ■B.variegata,éB. doganiana.