Concerning Two Species of Iraqi Echinops (Compositae): Contributions to the Flora of Iraq: XV

Abstract

Whilst preparing the account of Echinops for the "Flora of Iraq", a last contribution to the Flora which overlapped into my retirement, I was struck by the great resemblance in facies and indumentum between the plants treated by Rechinger (1979) as E. haussknechtii Boiss. and E. armatus Boiss. et Hausskn. var. armatus on the one hand, and those treated by him as E. armatus var. papillosus Rech.f. and var. cryptadenus Rech.f. on the other. Accordingly, I began searching for characters to confirm the uneasiness I felt concerning Rechinger's treatment. His key separated E. armatus and E. haussknechtii on the basis that the former has a cornigerous head, whereas the latter does not. In point of fact, neither the type of E. armatus nor the two other specimens cited by Rechinger as E. armatus var. armatus (Hadat' 5753 and Haines s.n. from Kirkuk) are cornigerous-though most of the more mature specimens of "var. papillosus" and "var. cryptadenus" are. If the type specimen of E. armatus is examined using the "Flora Iranica" key, it comes out, to my view, straight to E. haussknechtii. There is, happily, a confirmatory character for this. In E. haussknechtii the pappus is long (c. 2-75-3 mm), dark-based, and considerably overtops the apical hairs of the achene (Fig. 1H): this was found to be true also of the type of E. armatus Boiss. and the specimens named by Rechinger as E. armatus var. armatus. In all the specimens named by him as E. armatus var. papillosus and var. cryptadenus, the pappus is short (c. 2 mm), brownish, and completely overtopped by the hairs of the achene (Fig. 1G). I find no character reliably to separate E. armatus and E. haussknechtii, (though the spines of the former are somewhat stronger) and formally combine them here, choosing the latter of these two names (which were published at the same date) since it has not been subject to confusion.