PLoS ONE (Jan 2016)

Molecular Phylogeny and Morphological Analysis Support a New Species and New Synonymy in Iranian Astragalus (Leguminosae).

  • Ali Bagheri,
  • Ali Asghar Maassoumi,
  • Mohammad Reza Rahiminejad,
  • Frank R Blattner

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149726
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 3
p. e0149726

Abstract

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As a result of a taxonomic and phylogenetic revision of Astragalus section Hymenostegis we identified a new species of Astragalus from northwestern Iran, namely A. remotispicatus spec. nov., which is described and illustrated here. It is morphologically similar to A. karl-heinzii in possessing a lax inflorescence. Phylogenetic inference of the nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region support A. remotispicatus as a clearly distinct species within the lax-inflorescence group of this section. Also the placement of A. sciureus var. subsessilis was found to be wrong and this taxon should be treated as a synonym within A. kohrudicus.