Karyological studies of four endemic Centaurea L. species

Abstract

In this paper, four endemic Centaurea species were investigated in terms of their chromosome numbers and karyomorphology. The chromosomal counts confirmed the results of previous reports, that the genus Centaurea has different basic chromosome numbers. Centaurea yaltirikii and Centaurea demirizii are diploid taxa. Centaurea yaltirikii has 2n = 18 chromosomes, and therefore has a basic chromosome number of nine, which is common in the genus Centaurea. A local endemic species, Centaurea demirizii has 2n = 16 chromosomes and a different basic chromosome number of x = 8, and this basic number is relatively rare for Centaurea. Centaurea leptophylla and Centaurea saligna are tetraploid with 2n = 36 chromosomes. We found predominance of chromosomes being metacentric and submetacentric. The results increase our karyological knowledge of these species. Moreover, this paper gives short taxonomic and morphologic notes to complement the information provided by Flora of Turkey with regards to the studied species.

Keywords:

• chromosome number
• chromosome morphology
• karyotype analysis
• karyotype asymmetry
• evolution
• Asteraceae
• Turkey

Acknowledgments

We thank the Scientific Investigation Project Coordinator of Selçuk University [project number: 2003/052] for their financial support.