Taraxacum primigenium Handel-Mazzetti (1907: 17)

Kirschner, Jan, Štěpánek, Jan, Doostmohammadi, Moslem & Zeisek, Vojtěch, 2021, Taraxacum assemanii represents a new section: A revision of the misinterpreted Taraxacum primigenium, and the elucidation of the enigmatic Taraxacum section Primigenia (Compositae, Crepidinae), Phytotaxa 520 (2), pp. 117-136 : 123-124

1. Taraxacum primigenium Handel-Mazzetti (1907: 17) .

Type:—[ IRAN]. Persiae austro-orient. prov. Kerman, in pratis alpinis humidis Kuh-i-Lalesar, 35[00]– 3900 m, 15 Jul 1892, J. Bornmüller , Iter persico-turcicum 1892–1893, no. 5131 ( G, no. det. 22585, lectotype, designated by van Soest 1977: 230; isolectotypes: K, no. det. 8821, 11796; LE, no. det. 20503; W, no. det. 9050; Z, no. det. 24503; BM, no. det. 8445; NMW (herb. A. J. Richards), no. det. 11796; JE, no. det. 30223; P 2508541 !; PRC 452291!; B 10-176665 , photo!) .

Plants small, delicate, usually 3.5–7 cm tall. Petiole light green or with purplish mid-vein abaxially, narrow, unwinged but dilated at the very base, subglabrous; plant base without tunic, with ± dense white and brownish hairs. Leaves vivid green with usually pale green mid-vein, ± glabrous, linear-spathulate to linear-oblanceolate, usually 2.5–5.5 × 0.3–0.7 (–1.0) cm, often undivided and ± entire or with 1–2 pairs of short patent obtuse lobules, but often pinnatilobed to pinnatisect, with 3–6 pairs of short, obtuse, ± entire, deltoid-triangular, approximated lobes, interlobes often almost absent, sometimes well developed and then short, narrow, entire; terminal segment often not distinct, sometimes short, obtuse, rarely elongated-triangular, entire. Scapes thin, usually densely arachnoid, at least distally, ± overtopping leaves. Capitulum bright yellow, to ca. 1.5 cm wide. Involucre green to light green, ca. 2–3.5 mm wide and subobconical at base. Outer phyllaries usually 10–11 (12), ± imbricate, linear-lanceolate to ± narrowly lanceolate, usually (2.3–) 2.5–3.3 (–4.6) × 0.7–1.1 mm, appressed, mid-green to deep green, often darker at the base, with a white, distinct, sharply delimited border 0.2–0.3 mm wide, margins sparsely ciliate near apex, apex grey-purple, flat to callose; inner phyllaries usually 7–9, most often 8–9 mm long. Outer ligules flat, striped dark grey-purple outside, inner ligule teeth usually light greyish purple. Stigmas yellow; anthers polliniferous, pollen grains regular in size. Achenes light greyish to light greyish stramineous-brown, 3.3–3.6 × ca. 0.9 mm, body very sparsely, minutely tuberculate in upper 1/4 (see Fig. 3 ), often with a few very sparse little spinules (to 0.1 mm long), not infrequently the spinulosity medium dense (denser than in Fig. 3 ) body very gradually to indistinctly narrowing into a short thick conical cone (0.4–) 0.5–0.6 (–0.7) mm long, usually ca. 0.4 mm thick at base,, ca. 0.3 mm distally, beak short and ± thickened (sometimes easily breaking off), (0.4–) 0.8–1.5 (–1.9) mm long, ca. 0.3 mm thick proximally, sometimes only 0.2 mm thick in the middle; pappus yellowish, (3.7–) 4–4.5 mm long. – Sexual.

Specimens examined:— IRAN. Kerman Province, Lalezar Mountains , 3714 m, 29°25’6.1” N, 56°47’27.4” E, 18 Jul 2018, M . Doostmohammadi 2 ( PRA, no. det. 33680; MIR 3369 ). – Kerman Province, Lalezar Mountains , 3416 m, 29°26’13.5” N, 56°47’10.8” E, 18 Jul 2018, M . Doostmohammadi 1 ( PRA, no. det. 33682; MIR 3368 ) . – Iran, Kerman, Laleh-Zar , Kuh-e-Laleh-Zar, 2650–3000 m, 24 Jun 1976, M . Moussavi & R. S . Tehrani 35245 ( PRA!, IRAN). – Kerman Province, Lalesar , 35[00]– 3900 m, 15 Jul 1892, J . Bornmüller, Iter persico-turcicum 1892–1893, no. 5133 ( B 10-176666 , photo!)

A note on the typification conflict:—As summarized above, the protologue description of T. primigenium combines characters of (at least) two taxa: vegetative and flower features predominantly derived from Bornmüller 5131, and achene attributes of T. assemanii . Moreover, Handel-Mazzetti included both the picture of an achene of T. assemanii ( Handel-Mazzetti 1907: plate I, fig. 2b) and the photograph of general habit of Bornmüller 5131 (Handel- Mazzetti 1907: plate IV, fig. 2). – Handel-Mazzetti (1907: 17) listed eight gatherings (from seven localities) in the protologue of T. primigenium , representing 30 syntypes cited in the text. Another four specimens are not relevant nomenclaturally because Handel-Mazzetti (1907: 17, a footnote) hesitated whether or not they belong to T. primigenium (... “könnte daher auch T. microcephalum sein”). In modern terms, following van Soest (1975, 1977), out of these 30 specimens, 12 belong to T. primigenium of Iran, and seven belong to T. assemanii (and eleven, otherwise belonging to the gatherings studied by us, were not seen by us).

The lectotype of T. primigenium ( van Soest 1977: 230, selected from the Bornmüller 5131 syntypes) is therefore in conflict with the protologue description as regards the achene characters. A number of the major local floras accepted either T. primigenium ( van Soest 1977, Jafari 2013) or T. assemanii ( van Soest 1975, Thiébaut 1940, Post 1896, 1932) or both ( Richards 1991), but an almost equal number of floras and checklists gave T. primigenium as a synonym of T. assemanii (Kirschner et al. 2008, Güner et al. 2012, Doll 2019, Mouterde 1983, Heller & Heyn 1993). If the current lectotype is replaced by a new one belonging to T. assemanii , there would be a risk of nomenclatural chaos. The name Taraxacum primigenium would be relegated in the synonymy of T. assemanii , and a new name would have to be introduced for the Iranian material.

The latest ICN ( Turland et al. 2018), Art. 9.19(c) and Note 7, anyway, does not give much possibility to replace the lectotype selected from among the syntypes cited, and the T. primigenium is, therefore, an Iranian stenoendemic taxon.

Relationships of T. primigenium :—The molecular analyses ( Fig. 1 , and comments above) place T. primigenium in the vicinity of T. sect. Piesis; the same holds for T. cylleneum . The closest taxon seems to be T. stenocephalum Boiss. , a variable tetraploid sexual member of T. sect. Piesis. Morphologically, both the achene characters and outer phyllaries are rather marginal to the core members of T. sect. Piesis, with T. perenne (having a short and thickened beak) as the most similar species. Outer phyllaries of T. primigenium are quite similar to those of T. salsitatis Kirschner & Štěpánek (1999: 408) but generally smaller. Achenes of T. primigenium , although sometimes spinulose just below the cone, usually are almost smooth, with a thickened, very short beak, which represents a diagnostic difference.

Distribution and habitat:— Taraxacum primigenium is confined to the Lalezar Mountains in the southeastern Iran. It grows on humid alpine meadows from about 3100 to 3900 m. a.s.l. ( Fig. 2 ). These kinds of permanently humid habitats are not very common in the relatively dry mountains of southeastern Iran, but one can find compact patches of alpine meadows here and there in the Lalezar Mountain. They harbour a variety of species, some of them cosmopolitan or with wide distribution ranges, such as Cerastium cerastoides (L.) Britton., Gentiana prostrata Haenke , Dactylorhiza umbrosa (Kar. & Kir.) Nevski and Botrychium lunaria (L.) Sw. and some with more restricted distributions like Pedicularis cabulica Benth. , Parnassia cabulica C.B.Clarke , Inula persica Ghahrem. -Nejad & Narimisa and Primula capitellata Boiss.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Neighbour-Net constructed from uncorrected P-distances in SplitsTree based on nrDNA ITS sequences of sexuals of 30 Taraxacum sections and separate sexual species. The names of selected taxa treated in the present paper are marked. The presentation is simplified; details of the analysis are available on request. Modified from Kirschner et al. (2021).

FIGURE 2. Taraxacum primigenium. The habitat in the Lalezar Mts., Iran, characterized by higher humidity. Photo M. Doostmohammadi.

FIGURE 3. Taraxacum primigenium. A, B, achenes. C, flower head. All from the Lalezar Mts. (PRA, no. det. 33680). Scale bars = 1 mm.