Abstract
In this survey, the chromosome counts of eight Nepeta L. species were investigated and the karyotypic diversity among these species was studied. The examined species belong to N. cephalotes Boiss. species group, namely N. eremokosmos Rech.f., N. gloeocephala Rech. f., cephalotes Boiss., N. pungens (Bunge) Benth., N. ispahanica Boiss., N. mahanensis Jamzad & Simonds, N. hormozganica Jamzad and N. denudata Benth. collected from different habitats in Iran. The ploidy levels, karyotype formula, chromosome length range, total karyotype length, several karyotype asymmetries values and Stebbins classification were determined in this study. Results showed the same chromosome number, 2n = 2x= 18 for all studied species. The basic chromosome number for the above mentioned species are x = 9. Also, the smallest chromosome length is 1.02 μm in N. mahanensis. The largest chromosome length is 2.3 μm in N. ispahanica. The chromosomes of species were metacentric or submetacentric. According to the Stebbins classification, these species were located into three classes 1A, 2A and 3A. The chromosome numbers for six of studied species are reported here for the first time.
Highlights
The family Lamiaceae consists of 7173 species in 236 genera worldwide
There was no difference between basic chromosome numbers of the eight studied species and they were x = 9
The details of each species are as follow: Nepeta cephalotes is an Irano-Turanian endemic species and grows in central and northwest of Iran
Summary
The family Lamiaceae consists of 7173 species in 236 genera worldwide. Many of its species have a great importance due to their economic values (Harley et al 2004). (catmint) is a genus belonging to the subfamily Nepetoideae (Cantino et al 1992). It is one of the largest genera within Nepetoideae, growing as annual, herbaceous perennial and fruticose plants (Rechinger 1982; Jamzad 2003a, 2012; Kaya and Dirmenci 2008). Endemic species, constituting valuable floristic elements are those which are confined to a particular geographic region. The narrow endemic species are scientifically interesting and very important from conservation point of view.
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