Abstract
Saxifraga artvinensis V.A.Matthews, which is endemic to Turkey, was discovered on Tiryal Mountain (A8 Artvin, northeastern Turkey). Approximately 175 km from its type locality, a new population of the species was discovered, in the Picea orientalis forest in the Altındere Valley National Park, in A7 Trabzon (northeastern Turkey). A comparison with the known population of S. artvinensis confirmed that this new population represented a new taxon and is described as S. artvinensis subsp. meryemii Terzioğlu & Coşkunç. An identification key and comparison with closely related taxa, based on both morphological and molecular properties, are also provided. The studied samples, belonging to subsp. artvinensis and subsp. meryemii, had identical sequences in the entire internal transcribed spacer region. On the other hand, subsp. meryemii was easily distinguishable from subsp. artvinensis by its hairy flowering stem, 3-8 flowers, subsessile pedicels, and sepals hairy at base.
Highlights
Saxifraga L., the most species-rich genus of Saxifragaceae, is dominantly distributed in montane to alpine vegetation belts in mountain ranges of the Northern Hemisphere (Soltis, 2007; Tkach et al, 2015)
The genus comprises more than 440 species worldwide (Tkach et al, 2015) and 21 species in Turkey (Matthews, 1972; Aslan, 2012; Fırat, 2016)
Literature and herbarium surveys revealed that the plants did not belong to any of the taxa recorded from the national park; instead, they represented Saxifraga artvinensis V.A.Matthews, which is endemic to Turkey, and only known from the type location (A8 Artvin) (Mathews, 1972)
Summary
Saxifraga L., the most species-rich genus of Saxifragaceae, is dominantly distributed in montane to alpine vegetation belts in mountain ranges of the Northern Hemisphere (Soltis, 2007; Tkach et al, 2015). Literature and herbarium surveys revealed that the plants did not belong to any of the taxa recorded from the national park; instead, they represented Saxifraga artvinensis V.A.Matthews, which is endemic to Turkey, and only known from the type location (A8 Artvin) (Mathews, 1972). Further comparisons showed that the specimens represented a new subspecies of S. artvinensis. Meryemii Turkey, Terzioğlu & Coşkunçelebi 1246 (KTUB)
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