Allium dumanii (A. sect. Codonoprasum, Amaryllidaceae), a new species from E Turkey

Abstract: Allium dumanii Koyuncu & Koçyiğit, a new species in A. sect. Codonoprasum (Rchb.) Endl. from Kahramanmaraş and Malatya, Anatolia, is described and illustrated. It is compared with the possibly related A. armenum Boiss. & Kotschy. The karyomorphology of A. dumanii and A. armenum is also presented and discussed. The chromosome number of the new species is 2n = 16. Citation: Koçyiğit M., Yeşil Y. & Koyuncu M. 2016: Allium dumanii (A. sect. Codonoprasum, Amaryllidaceae), a new species from E Turkey. — Willdenowia 46: 113–119. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3372/wi.46.46109 Version of record first published online on 1 April 2016 ahead of inclusion in April 2016 issue.


Introduction
The genus Allium L. is the largest genus in Turkey, comprising about 220 taxa grouped into 14 sections; 86 taxa are endemic to the country (endemism rate 39.1 %) (Kaya 2014;. Allium has been treated in the family Liliaceae (s.l.) by Kollmann (1984). However, it is included in the family Amaryllidaceae according to The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). Allium sect. Codonoprasum (Rchb.) Endl., the second largest and the most taxonomically complicated section in Turkey, includes 55 taxa, of which 25 are endemic to the country (Koyuncu 2012;. Recent taxonomic research in the genus has been mainly focused in the Mediterranean area, SW Asia and parts of C Asia and has resulted in the description of several new species and subspecies, increasing the number of Allium taxa to more than 900 worldwide (Brullo & Tzanoudakis 1994;Brullo & al. 2001;Brullo & al. 2008;Friesen 2008;Khassanov & al. 2011;Koçyiğit & Özhatay 2012;Khassanov & al. 2013;Tojibaev & al. 2014;Galdo & al. 2015;Seregin 2015;Tzanoudakis & Trigas 2015). The above mentioned areas have been considered as the gene centre of the genus (Friesen 2008).
The new species was first collected in 1986 from Kahramanmaraş Province by Prof. H. Duman and was already mentioned by M. Koyuncu in an unpublished report of the project "Endemic Allium in Turkey" in 1994 (Koyuncu & Güvenç 1994). Later, in the Ph.D. thesis project by M. Koçyiğit "Taxonomic studies on the genus Allium (sect. Codonoprasum) in Turkey" performed in 2007-2010 under the supervision of Prof. N. Özhatay, some specimens were collected from Malatya Province and they were compared with the Kahramanmaraş specimens and other herbarium material. They were examined in detail morphologically and karyologically. Because of the simple filaments and absence of conspicuous nectaries on the ovary, they were determined as belonging to A. sect. Codonoprasum. The new species shows similarities with the Turkish endemic A. armenum Boiss. & Kotschy because it has persistent spathe valves shorter than or equalling the umbel, lax and globose inflorescence, campanulate perigon, and ovoid-globose ovary. A careful examination of herbarium specimens, however, revealed that the populations in fact differ from A. armenum in several morphological characters, particularly in the capsule and flower features. The material is described in the present paper as a species new to science, A. dumanii Koyuncu & Koçyiğit.

Material and methods
The comparison of Allium dumanii with A. armenum was based on living material, herbarium specimens kept at AEF, E, G, ISTE and K (herbarium codes according to Thiers [continuously updated]) and on data derived from the available literature. Ten different bulbs of each species were investigated karyologically and 10 -15 metaphase plates were studied. Chromosome counts were obtained from somatic metaphases using a standard squash technique (Koçyiğit & Bona 2013;Demirci & al. 2013). The karyomorphology of the new species was described and compared with that of A. armenum. The classification of chromosomes follows Levan & al. (1964).

Phenology -Flowering in August and September.
Distribution and ecology -Allium dumanii is endemic to Turkey and distributed in the Irano-Turanian phytogeographical region. It grows on rocky slopes at altitudes of 1545 -2300 m and is known from Kahramanmaraş (the type locality) and Malatya (Fig. 3).
Etymology -The new species is named after Hayri Duman, collector of the new species and Professor of Botany in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Gazi University.
Karyology -The members of Allium sect. Codonoprasum are generally characterized by a uniform haploid chromosome complement consisting of eight ± median and submedian chromosomes (Özhatay 1984;Tzanoudakis 1986;Koçyiğit & Özhatay 2012). The results of the present study are more or less in agreement with the above statement: the diploid chromosome number was found to be the same (2n = 16) and only small morphological differences were observed on the karyotypes (Table 2). Allium dumanii resulted diploid with 2n = 16 chromosomes, showing a karyotype similar to that of A. armenum, as follows: Allium dumanii: karyotype formula 2n = 2x = 16 = 14m+2m SAT . Metaphase chromosome length 40.151 -27.904 μm; total haploid chromosome length 134.856 μm ±0.92 (Fig. 4).
Taxonomic remarks -Allium dumanii clearly belongs to A. sect. Codonoprasum because it has simple filaments, absence of conspicuous nectaries on the ovary, and two opposite spathe valves, which are unequal with at least one shorter than the umbel or at most as long as the umbel. In some morphological features and in karyotype the new species is well differentiated from other similar taxa of this section. On the basis of the morphology of the spathe valves, perigon and ovary A. dumanii shows similarities with A. armenum, but differs in having yellowish to dirtywhite inner bulb tunics, glabrous leaves, yellow and glabrous leaf sheaths, shorter scape, and purple-mauve and equal tepals. Also the flowering time of A. dumanii (August-September) is later than that of A. armenum (July-August). Despite both examined species sharing the same diploid chromosome number, A. du manii differs from A. armenum in having 16 metacentric (m), one of which has a SAT chromosome. The morphological and karyological differences between the new species and A. armenum are summarized in Tables 1 and 2.  A 1 = intrachromosomal asymmetry index; A 2 = interchromosomal asymmetry index; CV CI = coefficient of variation of centromeric index; CV CL = coefficient of variation of chromosome lengths; AI = karyotype asymmetry index; SC = shortest chromosome length; LC = longest chromosome length; CI = mean centromeric index; ± = standard deviation (for definitions see Paszko 2006).