Tulipa kosovarica Kit Tan, Shuka & Krasniqi, 2012

Shuka, Lulëzim, Tan, Kit & Krasniqi, Elez, 2012, Tulipa kosovarica (Liliaceae), a new species of tulip from Kosovo, Phytotaxa 62 (1), pp. 1-9 : 2-6

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.62.1.1
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F11487E7-A432-1B6F-2C82-FF49FB33FE28
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Tulipa kosovarica Kit Tan, Shuka & Krasniqi
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Tulipa kosovarica Kit Tan, Shuka & Krasniqi View in CoL , sp. nov. ― Figs. 1–4 View FIGURE 1 View FIGURE 2 View FIGURE 3 View FIGURE 4

Distinguished from Tulipa albanica and T. scardica by its white perianth base and white filaments, and from T. serbica by its cerise-magenta, obovate inner perianth segments, which are not pale pink nor rhomboidal in shape, as well as by its clearly demarcated white perianth base.

Type:— KOSOVO (Southwestern Kosovo: UTM 34 T DN4). Rahoveci province: Mirusha region at the foot of Mt Kozniku, N-facing serpentine slopes on the left side of Mrasori tributary, branch of White Drini river, between Mrasori and Llapçevë villages, ca. 1.5 km above the railroad, in open thermophilous woodland dominated by Quercus pubescens and Juniperus oxycedrus , 420 – 480 m, 42°30’N, 20°34’E, 20 May 2011, flowers red to scarlet, white at the base, Shuka 4578 (holotype TIR, isotypes C, LD, herb. Pristina, private herbarium Shuka).

Perennial herb. Bulb 3–4 × 1.5–2.0 cm, ovoid, not stoloniferous; tunics blackish-brown, chartaceous; inner surface densely covered with straight, 2.5–4.0 mm long silky adpressed unicellular basifixed hairs. Stem erect, 15–30 cm above ground (excluding subterranean portion), glabrous, glaucous to greyish-green. Leaves 3–5, lower ones alternate, upper two usually opposite, glaucous to greyish-green, erect-patent, not exceeding the flower, entire; lowermost leaves (at ground level) 10–26 × 1.5–3.0 cm, broadly canaliculate, weakly undulate, linear-lanceolate, apiculate to subacute, cucullate when young, ciliolate in lower 2/3; upper cauline leaves 5–11 × 0.5–0.8 cm, smaller and narrower, acute to acuminate. Flowers solitary, erect, campanulate, glabrous. Perianth segments slightly unequal, cerise to dark magenta-red with white apiculate papyraceous tips and white to whitish base occupying the lower quarter, the white base less visible on external surface of perianth segments and not conspicuous at all in dried material. White base sometimes suffused by the reddishpurple colour of the perianth segments, resulting in obtrullate blackish-violet basal patches or dark shadows. Outer segments 3.5–5.0 (–6.0) × 1.5–2.3 cm elliptic, attenuating to a narrow claw at base; inner segments 3.0–4.7 × 1–2 cm, obovate to oblanceolate, obtuse to subacute. Filaments 10–13 mm, white, glabrous, dilated at base; anthers 8–12 mm, blackish-maroon, oblong to elliptical, shorter than filaments; pollen purplishmaroon to dull purple at anthesis, very rarely yellow, olivaceous with age. Ovary subsessile, 15–20 mm long (longer than filaments at anthesis), yellowish-green; stigmas 3, recurved-decurrent, pale green, papillose. Capsule 3.0–3.5 × 1.5–2.2 cm, ellipsoid, apiculate, shortly stipitate, with distinct transverse veins throughout, pale brown. Seeds 7–8 × 6 mm (including the 0.8–1.2 mm broad wing), flat, triangular-deltoid; brown, turning dark reddish-brown at maturity. Flowering late April to mid-May; capsules dehiscing end of June to mid-July.

Tulipa kosovarica ( Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 & 2A–B View FIGURE 2 ) differs from T. scardica by its white or whitish perianth base that is sometimes masked by obtrullate patches of maroon and violet. However, the perianth base is never yellow with blackish-purple blotches as is typical for T. scardica ( Fig. 2D View FIGURE 2 ). An important difference lies in the stamen colour: the filaments of T. kosovarica are always white and the anthers and pollen maroon to dark purple, very rarely yellow. In T. scardica the filaments are never white but dark-coloured, the anthers are blackish-maroon and the pollen greenish-yellow at dehiscence ( Fig. 4D View FIGURE 4 ), very rarely blackish-maroon. From T. serbica , the most obvious difference is in the shape and colour of the inner perianth segments and colour of the pollen grains. The inner perianth segments in T. kosovarica are obovate ( Fig. 3C View FIGURE 3 ) and cerise-magenta ( Fig. 2A–B View FIGURE 2 ), but in T. serbica they are more rhomboidal in shape ( Fig. 3B View FIGURE 3 ) and pale pink with a darker pink broad central band so that the segment appears pink with broad white margins ( Fig. 3A View FIGURE 3 ). The base of the perianth in T. serbica is usually pale pink within and not demarcated in colour from the rest of the perianth; it is rarely whitish to pale green and never with black blotches. The pollen is yellow ( Fig. 4B View FIGURE 4 ), very rarely purplishmaroon. White-flowered individuals exist in the wild as noted by Prodanović and Krivošej (Stevanović, pers. comm. 2009). Tulipa albanica differs from the other three named species by its combination of yellow perianth bases without black blotches, yellow filaments ( Fig. 2C View FIGURE 2 ) and violet-purple pollen ( Fig. 4C View FIGURE 4 ). The morphological differences in the four species are summarized in Table 1.

Among the Balkan tulips with non-woolly inner bulb tunics and glabrous filaments ( Tulipa sect. Tulipa ), there is the frequent combination of red perianth segment with black basal blotches edged yellow, together with greenish-yellow (as in T. scardica ) or blackish-maroon pollen grains (as in T. rhodopea (Velen.) Velen. ); this syndrome is exhibited also in T. undulatifolia Boiss. that belongs, however, to a different section, T. sect. Tulipanum Reboul. This set of characters is absent in T. kosovarica , which has a combination of red perianths with white bases, absence of black basal blotches, presence of white filaments and predominantly purplishmaroon pollen grains ( Fig. 4A View FIGURE 4 ), thus differing from the other species in T. sect. Tulipa . Also in this respect, T. serbica with its combination of white or pale-pink perianth, absence of black basal blotches, presence of white or whitish-coloured filaments and predominantly yellow pollen ( Fig. 4B View FIGURE 4 ) deserves taxonomic recognition from T. scardica to which it had previously been assigned ( Shuka et al. 2010). Observations made on several taxa in Greece indicate that the combination of black basal blotches on a yellow background together with red perianths is a reliable and easily observed distinguishable character. Pollen colour alone is not a distinguishing feature between species, but is useful when studied in combination with several other characters.

Tulipa scardica View in CoL with a nuclear DNA content of 2C = 69 pg (Zonneveld 2009) is treated as a synonym of T. gesneriana Linnaeus (1753: 306) View in CoL in the World Checklist for Tulipa ( Govaerts 2012) View in CoL ; the latter species has a 2C value averaging 68.7 pg, which is also close to that of 2C = 68.6 pg for T. rhodopea (Zonneveld 2009) View in CoL . Tulipa undulatifolia Boiss. View in CoL , which has similar perianth markings is however, in a different section, and this taxonomic distinction is represented by its much lower 2C value of 51.2 pg (Zonneveld 2009).