Morphology and Palynology Systematic Studies of The Genus Bellevalia Lapeyr. (Asparagaceae) in Kurdistan-Iraq

Abstract

Morphological and palynological systematic studies for the 10 species of genus Bellivalia Lapeyr. (Asparagaceae) in Kurdistan-Iraq conducted during the growing seasons( 2015-2016) to determine the species distribution and recording new localities.The morphological investigation was dealt with the characteristics of the bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers, inflorescences, fruits and seeds and it was indicated through discussing the characters diversity that the flowers characters are taxonomically more important than vegetative characters to isolate the species. The palynological study is first conducted on Iraqi botanical specimens and indicated that pollen grains of all studied taxa of the genus Bellevalia , monads and monosolcate with variations in other characters of pollen grains which give a taxonomic importance. The species (B. macrobotrys, B. longipes, B. glauca, B. saviczii, B. olivierii, B. mosheovii, B. kurdistanica and B. pycnantha) were previously recorded and two species are new for Iraq (Bellevalia fominii and B.longistyla).