Allium sulaimanicum: A new Allium species and section from Pakistan

• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1020440
• Publication Date: 2022-12-14T08:38:15Z
• Authors: Nazar Khan; Nikolai Friesen; Amir Sultan; Reinhard M. Fritsch; Tahir Khan; Kamran Ishaq
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; 570; Plant Science; phylogeny; Biochemistry; Gene; 01 natural sciences; SB1-1110; Allium; Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Ploidy; Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions; Stamen; ddc:580; chromosome; Biology; Biological Properties of Garlic and Its Compounds; 580; rpl32-trnL; Botany; Plant culture; Life Sciences; Sulaiman range; Pollen; ddc:570; ITS; phylogeny ; chromosome ; rpl32-trnL ; ITS ; Sulaiman range; Tepal; Genetics and Epidemiology of Plant Pathogens; Rhizome

A new species, Allium sulaimanicum, is described from northern Balochistan and southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan based on morphological, molecular, and cytological studies. The new species is characterised by long runner-like cylindrical rhizomes of adult plants, cylindrical bulbs, linear leaves with minute soft hairs along veins, campanulate perigonium, and white to creamy white, ovate to elliptical, 4.5–5-mm-long acute tepals, with brownish to purplish nerves, stamens as long as to slightly longer than tepals, yellow to brick red anthers, hexagonal ovary, and white and papillate/warty along angles. The presence of long herbaceous rhizomes indicated serious isolation of the new species; hence, a new section Sulaimanicum is proposed to accommodate the new species. The new species is diploid with a chromosome number of 2n = 16. Detailed morphological description, illustrations, phylogenetic analyses based on sequences of plastid spacers (rpl32-trnL (UAG) and trnQ-rps16) and nuclear ITS, karyotype features, and a distribution map of the new species are provided.