Morphological and Anatomical Properties of Endemic Iris nezahatiae Distributed in the North-East Anatolia Region (Turkey)

Abstract

In this study, the morphological and anatomical properties of endemic Iris nezahatiae Güner & H. Duman were determined and discussed with Iris caucasica Hoffm. in terms of similar and different properties. I. nezahatiae is placed in juno irises. This species is a spring geophyte of Turkey and has flowers in varied colours. It distributes only in the vicinity of Yusufeli (Artvin) in Turkey and is under threat of exctinction. The species is a bulbous and perennial plant and has storage roots. The leaves and flowers of I. nezahatiae have different morphologic properties. In anatomical research, the differences were observed in the central cylinder of root, stem and mesophyll layer of leaf. Consequently, some morphologic and anatomic characters between two close taxa were determined that can be selecred as discriminative characters. Stomata index of the species was also calculated