Abstract
Morphological, anatomical and cytological features of three Turkish taxa of Centaurea L., viz. C. polypodiifolia Boiss. var. polypodiifolia, C. urvillei DC. subsp. urvillei and C. urvillei subsp. armata Wagenitz were investigated. Stem anatomy revealed the presence of a thick cuticle layer outside the stem, and epidermis with dense hairs was observed in the lower part. Investigation on leaf anatomy showed that different types of hairs on the outside of the leaf were very intense. Palisade parenchyma was observed below the upper and lower epidermis. In Centaurea polypodiifolia var. polypodiifolia, chromosome number was found to be 2n=16, while in C. urvillei subsp. urvillei and C. urvillei subsp. armata 2n=20. Total karyotype length of C. polypodiifolia var. polypodiifolia, C. urvillei subsp. urvillei and C. urvillei subsp. armata was 22.9 µm, 37.84 µm and 40.01 µm, respectively. Among the investigated taxa the karyotype asymmetry index was found lowest in C. urvillei subsp. armata. Satellite was detected in C. urvillei subsp. urvillei and subsp. armata, while it was absent in C. polypodiifolia Boiss. var. polypodiifolia.
Highlights
Centaurea L. (Asteraceae) consists of about 700 species and distributed in the Mediterranean region and the Near East with a few species reaching northern Eurasia, north and east Africa, North America, and Australia (Bancheva et al, 2014; Behçet et al, 2017)
Though some taxa of Centaurea were investigated based on anatomical (Ozcan, 2013; Uysal et al, 2016) and cytological (Martin et al, 2006; Uysal et al, 2009) characters, many taxa of this genus occurring in Turkey remain unexplored using these important tools
In C. polypodiifolia var. polypodiifolia, mesophyll tissue consists of 2-3 layers of palisade and 2-3 layers of spongy parenchymatous cells, whereas in C. urvillei subsp. urvillei and C. urvillei subsp. armata it is composed of 3 layers of palisade parenchymatous cells and 2 layers of spongy parenchymatous cells (Fig. 3)
Summary
Centaurea L. (Asteraceae) consists of about 700 species and distributed in the Mediterranean region and the Near East with a few species reaching northern Eurasia, north and east Africa, North America, and Australia (Bancheva et al, 2014; Behçet et al, 2017). Though some taxa of Centaurea were investigated based on anatomical (Ozcan, 2013; Uysal et al, 2016) and cytological (Martin et al, 2006; Uysal et al, 2009) characters, many taxa of this genus occurring in Turkey remain unexplored using these important tools. Notes: The present morphological investigation deals with in-depth study including the several quantitative characters of three taxa of Centaurea, viz, size of root, lower and median leaves, outher, median and inner phyllaries and capitulum, where these characters are missing in the Flora of Turkey (Davis, 1975).
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