Tulipa korshinskyi Vved.

Tojibaev, Komiljon, Dekhkonov, Davron, Ergashov, Ibrokhimjon, Sun, Hang, Deng, Tao & Yusupov, Ziyoviddin, 2022, The synopsis of the genus Tulipa (Liliaceae) in Uzbekistan, Phytotaxa 573 (2), pp. 163-214 : 185-186

2.10. Tulipa korshinskyi Vved. in Byull. Sredne-Aziatsk. Gosud. Univ. 21: 149. (1935).

Type:— TAJIKISTAN. Darvaz , 17 April 1897, Korshinsky 1713 (4928) (holotype LE!) .

Description:—Bulb ovoid, 1.5–2.0(3) cm thick; tunic coriaceous, dark brown, almost black, the inner surface lined at the apex and at the base with adpressed hairs; stem (5) 10–20 cm long, mostly underground at the beginning of flowering and later elongating, the stem and peduncle glabrous; leaves (2–3)4(5), approximate, nearly verticillate, exceeding the flower, strongly spreading or sometimes deflexed, glabrous, curled, commonly exceeding the flower; basal leaf lanceolate, 1.5–3.0 cm broad, the other reduced in size; flower solitary, sometimes 2, stellate with a thin peduncle; perigone segments inside white with yellow basal blotch, 1.5–4.0 cm long; outer segments linear-lanceolate, violettinged on the back, up to half as long again as the oblanceolate-rhomboidal to obovate-rhomboidal inner segments; stamens half the length of perigone; filaments yellow with an orange tip, glabrous, with nearly parallel margins, linear-oblong, abruptly narrowed at apex; anthers bright yellow, the yellow connective protruding above the apex; ovary shorter than anthers; style long, up to half as long as ovary; stigma light coloured; capsule 4 cm long, ellipsoid, acuminate at top and at base.

General distribution:—Pamir-Alay ( Tajikistan, Uzbekistan).

Distribution in Uzbekistan:—I-6 Western Hissar district (I-6-a Kashkadarya region).

Phenology:—Flowering: March–April; fruiting: May–June.

Ecology:—Stony slopes in middle and upper mountain zone, 1300–3500 m a.s.l.

Etymology:—The species is named after academician S. Korshinsky (1861–1900), Russian botanist and geneticistevolutionist, one of the founders of phytocenology, full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences; 45 species and one genus of plants have been named after him.

Note:— T. korshinskyi is one of the species recently recorded for Uzbekistan for the first time based on herbarium specimens collected in the middle of XX Century near the border with Tajikistan Previously, it has been reported as endemic to Tajikistan ( Vvedensky 1963, Vvedensky & Kovalevskaja 1971). Botschantzeva (1962) and Zonneveld (2009) considered this tulip as a separate species of sect. Kolpakowkianae. According to Christenhusz et al. (2013), it is synonym of T. anisophylla Vvedensky (1935: 147) . Further studies are strongly required.

Specimens examined:— UZBEKISTAN: Western Hissar district , Kashkadarya region , Hissar Range , the upper part of the Aksu river, above the village Suvtushar, 16 June 1957, Adylov 518 ( TASH!) .

High decreasing rate after 1970 is visible with species distributed in the hotspots where impact of anthropogenic factors (habitat loss, fragmentation, overgrazing) is high. Especially, T. lehmanniana from the central part of the study area is under high anthropogenic impact where overgrazing and fragmentation of populations are increasing year by year. The situation can be observed with T. korolkowii and the recently described species ( T. scharipovii , T. intermedia ) in Chap badlands (Pap district, Namangan region). Single individuals of T. hissarica and T. korshinskyi can be found in the transboundary region with Tajikistan. The appearance of the populations in the north of Fergana Valley is explained as an increase of botanical investigations which provided descriptions of 3 new tulip species ( T. talassica , T. intermedia and T. scharipovii ) ( Fig. 7 ).

Figures

FIGURE 7. Distribution of the species of Tulipa sect. Kolpakowskianae before (A) and after (B) the year 1970. Tulipa scharipovii (5) and T. intermedia (6) were described as new species after 1970.