Karyological studies on some Crocus L. 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. © 2012 Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica, Università di Firenze.