Stipa saikanica Kotukhov (1998b: 10)

Nobis, Marcin & Gudkova, Polina D., 2016, Taxonomic notes on feather grasses (Poaceae: Stipa) from eastern Kazakhstan with typification of seven names and one new combination, Phytotaxa 245 (1), pp. 31-42 : 37

14. Stipa saikanica Kotukhov (1998b: 10) . Type citation:—Saur-Tarbagataj, praemontia boreali-occidentalia jugi Saikan, locus Akseir, denudationes argillarum tertiariarum (in gypsaceis), partitiones glareoso-argillosae, 9 VI 1992, Ju. Kotuchov (LE)

Type (original label):— Stipa saikanica Kotuch sp. nov., Tip: Saur-Tarbagatai, sev.-zap. predgor’ya khr. Saikan, urochishche Akseir, obnazheniya tretichnyh glin (pestrotsvety), galechno-glinistye uchastki, 9 VI 1992, Yu. Kotukhov (lectotype LE! designated here, isolectotypes KRA 436036!, KUZ! 2 sheets, LE! 2 sheets).

Original material (type) of this species at LE consists of five specimens from a single gathering mounted on two sheets. A third sheet of the taxon with the same label was determined by N. Tzvelev as S. kamelinii . Additionally, three sheets with original specimens of this taxon (not mentioned in the description) are preserved at KUZ and KRA. Because the holotype was not indicated by the author, we designate a sheet containing three specimens as the lectotype.

Kotukhov (1998b) distinguished Stipa saikanica from S. lessingiana by a shorter anthecium (7–8 vs. 9–11 mm long), and shorter awn (12–14 vs. 20–26 cm long). However, specimens from the type collection have a longer anthecium (up to 9 mm long) and somewhat longer awns (12–15 cm long). In our opinion, specimens of S. saikanica look like young (not fully developed) S. lessingiana . Moreover, as a widely distributed species, S. lessingiana is characterized by greater variability in the length of anthecia (8.5–11.5 mm long) and awns ((14–)17–22(–26) cm long) than was stated by Kotukhov (1998b). Thus, we treat S. saikanica as conspecific with S. lessingiana .