New cytological, morphological, and chorological data on Prospero seisumsianum (Rukšans & Zetterl.) Yıldırım (Asparagaceae) from the Zagros area

Abstract

Prospero seisumsianum (Rukšans & Zetterl.) Yıldırım, a species recently described in southeastern Turkey, was recorded forthe first time in the flora of Iraq based on samples collected from the Amadya and Duhok areas (northern Iraq). Our contribution herewill be to find out more about its description, cytology, and chorology. The specimen collected from the Mesopotamian dry plain differsslightly from those collected from the mountainous Zagros forest area, but converges after a cultivation period. Both are treated here asP. seisumsianum and have the same genome size (2C = 8.77 ± 0.24 pg) corresponding to a diploid level. Three chromosome counts gavethe same 2n = 2x = 14 karyotype. We hypothesize here that all the historical mentions of P. “autumnale” in Iraq actually correspond toP. seisumsianum. Comparative morphological description, genome size, ecological niche, and biogeography of the related taxa, and arevised key for Prospero taxa from the Irano-Anatolian enlarged to its Mediterranean border are given in the present study.