A new species of Crocus ser. Verni (Iridaceae) with 2n = 12 chromosomes from the Balkans

Abstract

A Crocus population in the Northern Albanian Alps obviously belonging to C. ser. Verni was referred to C. heuffelianus, but closer field investigations revealed that it could not be identified with this or any other Verni species. The detailed description of a new species, Crocus bertiscensis, including morphology, leaf anatomy, cytology, and phylogenetic relationship is provided and illustrated. Phylogenetic analyses based on genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data obtained through genotyping-by-sequencing placed C. bertiscensis as clearly distinct from C. heuffelianus, supporting its rank as a species within C. ser. Verni. Morphologically, it differs from C. heuffelianus by showing paler and flatter perigone segments, short perigone tubes and leaf white stripe width of 1/7 compared to the leaf diameter. Finally, karyological and molecular analysis revealed that C. bertiscensis applies to the 2n = 12 cytotype of C. heuffelianus from Čakor Pass area reported by earlier studies.

Keywords:

• Taxonomy
• morphology
• anatomy

Acknowledgments

We like to thank I. Faustmann, C. Koch, B. Kraenzlin, and P. Oswald for help with plant cultivation and lab work, A. Himmelbach and S. König for performing Illumina sequencing, F. Blattner, H. Kerndorff, L. Peruzzi, K. Hegedüšová, and P. Vantara for providing Crocus material for molecular analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded through the project of The Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (project no. 173030 and contract no. 451-03-68/2020-14/200124) and through the research grants of: the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD; grant to I.R.), International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT; grant to I.R.) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant HA7550/2 to D.H.).