Karyological studies on someCrocusL. taxa from Turkey

Abstract

Chromosome numbers and morphometric parameters of five Crocus L. taxa were examined. Except C. specious Bieb. subsp. specious, and C. olivieri Gay subsp. olivieri, the other 3 taxa, C. abantensis T. Baytop et Mathew, C. ancyrensis (Herbert) Maw, and C. biflorus Miller subsp. pulchricolor (Herbert) Mathew all are endemic for Turkey. The chromosome numbers of C. abantensis 2n = 8 chromosomes, six of them metacentric and two were submetacentric, C. ancyrensis and C. olivieri subsp. olivieri both had 2n = 6 chromosomes and all the chromosomes were subtelocentric, finally C. specious subsp. specious and C. biflorus subsp. pulchricolor both had 2n = 8 chromosomes and all were submetacentric. Although some of the taxa chromosome numbers were known from previous studies, in this study some different counts were and their detailed karyotypes were presented.

Karyomorphology of some Crocus L. taxa from Uşak province in Turkey

“…Chromosome counts for C. olivieri subsp. olivieri from different locations were done previously and reported as 2n=6 (Mather 1932;Brighton et al 1973;Uslu et al 2012). In this aspect, chromosome number of this taxon from Uşak location show differences from other study results.…”

“…The number of the taxa belonging to the genus Crocus have recently doubled with the detailed field studies particularly in Turkey (Addam et al 2019). While Uslu et al (2012) states that there are almost 70 Crocus taxa which is their 31 endemic to Turkey, Gedik et al (2017) states that Turkey is represented by 132 taxa which is their 108 endemic. However this caused increase the taxonomic problems at the infraspecific level.…”

“…Another important situation which increase taxonomic problems in the genus Crocus is the changes observed in the chromosome number. Studies on the karyotypes of Crocus taxa show chromosome number changes from 2n=6 to 2n=70 within the genus (Brighton et al 1973;Uslu et al 2012;Harpke et al 2013). Furthermore, it was observed that some species from different localities show variation in chromosome number (Uslu et al 2012;Karamplianis et al 2013).…”

The Evaluations and Comparisons of Nuclear and Chloroplast DNA Regions Based on Species Identification and Phylogenetic Relationships of Crocus L. Taxa

“…Uslu et al (2012) states that the endemic taxon for Turkey, chromosome number of C. abantensis was found 2n = 8, but previously chromosome number of this taxon was reported as 2n = 16 by Baytop et al (1975) and Mathew (1984). Similarly, although chromosome number of C. ancyrensis was reported as 2n = 10 by Karasawa (1950) and Mathew (1984), chromosome number was found as 2n = 6 by Uslu et al (2012). All of these makes the difficult to understand the genus taxonomically and makes species identification doubtful.…”

“…Another situation is the changes frequently observed in the chromosome number within the genus (from 2n=6 to 2n=70) (Brighton et al, 1973;Uslu et al, 2012;Harpke et al, 2013). Even these changes in the chromosome number are observed in the same species belonging to different localities.…”