Silene chaetodonta Boiss., Diagn. Pl. Orient. 1: 39. 1843.

Eggens, Frida, Jafari, Farzaneh, Thollesson, Mikael, Crameri, Simon, Zarre, Shahin & Oxelman, Bengt, 2020, Phylogeny and species delimitation in Silene sect. Arenosae (Caryophyllaceae): a new section, PhytoKeys 159, pp. 1-34 : 1

6. Silene chaetodonta Boiss., Diagn. Pl. Orient. 1: 39. 1843.

= Silene chaetodonta Boiss. var. pittodes Boiss., Fl. Or. 1: 606. 1867. - Type: [Iran], Hab. In Persiâ ad Schurab inter Ispahan et Teheran, May 1859, Bunge s.n. (holotype: G-BOIS! [G00544221])

= S. debilis Stapf, Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturwiss. Kl., Denkschr. 51: 282. 1886. - Type: [Iran], [In agro Ecbatanensi], In colle prope Hamadan, 8 June 1882, Th. Pichler s.n. in D.J.E. Polak Iter Persicum (lectotype, designated here: K! [K000728462]; isolectotype: G! [G00378634])

Type.

[Iran], Hab. In Persia australis, Aucher Eloy Pl. Exs. 4223 (lectotype, designated by Lazkov in Bot. Zhurn. (Moscow & Leningrad). 87 (5): 130. 2002) G! [G00378632]; isolectotypes: G-BOIS! [G00544217], LE! [LE01051365], BM! [BM000990893], K! [K000728461], MO! [MO-149678]).

Description.

15.0-60.0 cm tall, erect or rarely spreading. Stem pubescent in lower part, scabrous, glabrous but with sessile glands in upper part; with 4-12 distinct internodes, the uppermost internode (2.0-)3.0-8.0(-10.0) cm long and obviously longer than the next upper internode. Basal leaves oblanceolate, pubescent. Cauline leaves linear or oblanceolate 10.0-50.0 × 2.0-6.0 mm, pubescent, scabrous. Calyx 13.0-17.0 mm long, ovoid at anthesis and clavate in fruit, scabrous; teeth unequal; shorter ones 2.0-4.0 mm, lanceolate, acuminate; longer ones 4.0-7.0 mm, lanceolate, acuminate; marginal hairs long (longer than 0.5 mm), dense. Inflorescence non-divaricate, branch axile (much) less than 90°. Petal claws 7.0-8.0 mm long, glabrous; limbs 5.0-8.0 mm long, bifid, upper-surface pink, lobes oblong, petal limbs cleft to middle or more; coronal scales 1.0-1.5 mm long, ovate, apex dentate. Anthophore 4.0-6.0 mm long, densely puberulent. Anthers included; filaments 8.0-9.0 mm long, glabrous. Styles exserted or included. First pedicel 1.0-4.0 cm in flower, 2.0-6.0 cm in fruit, erect, glabrous, apex antrorse. Capsule 7.0-11.0 mm long, oblong or ellipsoid, robust. Seeds ca 1.1 mm wide, ca. 0.7 mm high, testa smooth.

Distribution.

Iran, SE Turkey, Syria, Iraq, S Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and NW Pakistan (Fig. 7 ).

Notes.

Usually, this species is readily distinguished by its whitish stems, pink and broad lobed petal limbs, long calyx teeth, total calyx length less than 20 mm, prominent calyx vein and thick, robust capsule wall. Silene georgievskyi differs from it by having a much longer calyx and anthophore. It seems that the length of the calyx teeth is a more important character than calyx total length for species delimitation in this group.

We have sequenced all selected markers for two specimens from the same geographical region (W Iraq). The RPB2 sequences generated for two accessions of S. chaetodonta (ID 6259 and ID 7561) and one for S. striata shared a unique 261 bp insertion, but one accession of S. chaetodonta from Turkey (ID 181) and one of S. georgievskyi (ID 42: probably a hybrid between S. chaetodonta and S. microsperma , see above) lack this insertion. The two accessions of S. chaetodonta from W Iraq form a clade in the RPB2 tree (PP = 0.96 MPB = 94% MLB = 98%, Fig. 5 ), but the accession from Turkey is not sister to this clade and is nested within a clade including S. microsperma , S. exsudans and S. georgievskyi ID 42 (PP = 0.96 MPB = 83%). The accession of S. chaetodonta from Turkey could be a hybrid between S. chaetodonta and S. microsperma according to RPB2 sequence analysis. An accession from NE Iran ( S. chaetodonta ID 7642) form a clade with the other two S. chaetodonta sequences in the ITS tree (PP = 0.99 MPB 86% MLB = 90%, Fig. 3 ). The accession from NE Iran generated only an ITS sequence in our analyses.

Figures

Figure 3. Phylogenetic tree resulting from Bayesian analysis of the ITS sequences including 76 taxa. The trees were summarized in a 50 % majority-rule consensus tree with the posterior probabilities (PP) indicated above branches. Bootstrap support values (> 75 %) based on MP and ML are noted below branches, respectively. The numbers following the taxonomic name indicate the specimen ID and Genbank numbers (Suppl. material 1), respectively.

Figure 5. Phylogenetic tree resulting from Bayesian analysis of the RPB 2 sequences including 76 taxa. The trees were summarized in a 50 % majority-rule consensus tree with the posterior probabilities (PP) indicated above branches. Bootstrap support values (> 75 %) based on MP and ML are noted below branches, respectively. The numbers following the taxonomic name indicate the specimen ID and Genbank numbers (Suppl. material 1), respectively.

Figure 7. Distribution map of S. sect. Arenosae. Each color code corresponds to one taxon: A S. arenosa B S. austroiranica C S. chaetodonta D S. exsudans E S. georgievskyi F S. leyseroides G S. linearis H S. microsperma subsp. cypria I S. microsperma subsp. maritima J S. microsperma subsp. microsperma K S. microsperma subsp. modesta L S. striata.