Rediscovery of the poorly known Scorzonera argyria and its relationships in Turkey

Scorzonera argyria Boiss. has been a poorly known endemic species classified within DD category of IUCN. It has not been collected since its introduction to the scienti. c community in 1843. Scorzonera argyria in the Turkish. ora might be considered to be a synonymy of S. eriophora. Based on the specimens collected from the type locality environs, Scorzonera argyria's detailed morphological, karyological and palynological descriptions are presented. Its two allies, S. eriophora DC. and S. pisidica Hub.-Mor., are morphologically and palynologically studied and compared to Scorzonera argyria. After the comparison conducted in the present study, S. argyria is clearly determined to be a distinct species. Consequently, in addition to some vegetative characters S. argyrea basically differs from the allied species by its typical achenes. S. argyrea and the two allied species are generally palynologically similar, but minor differences exist between them on account of their spine shapes and micro-ornamentations observed under scanning electron microscopy. The habitat S. argyrea and its typically associated species are briefly discussed. Additional data on the ecology and the conservation status of S. argyria are also given.