Article ISSN 1179-3163 (Online Edition)

Phytotaxa 62: 1–9 (2012) ISSN 1179-3155 (print edition) www.mapress.com/phytotaxa/ PHYTOTAXA Copyright © 2012 Magnolia Press Article ISSN 1179-3163 (online edition) Tulipa kosovarica (Liliaceae), a new species of tulip from Kosovo LULËZIM SHUKA1, KIT TAN2 & ELEZ KRASNIQI3 1Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Tirana University, Bld. ZOG I, Albania 2Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, DK-1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected] 3Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Pristina University, Mother Theresa str., Kosovo Abstract Tulipa kosovarica (Liliaceae) is illustrated and described as a new species from a serpentine area in Rahoveci province, southwestern Kosovo. It is related to T. serbica from northern Kosovo and had previously been confused with T. scardica from (F.Y.R.) Macedonia and southern Kosovo, all found on serpentine soils. Comparison is made with the recently described T. albanica from northeastern Albania. Ecological data for T. kosovarica is presented in detail and the distribution of all four species in the Balkan Peninsula is mapped. Key words: Balkan Peninsula, serpentine substrate, taxonomy, Tulipa albanica, T. scardica, T. serbica Introduction In spite of its small territorial area, Kosovo has an extremely rich flora, due to its varied climate, topography and geology. The number of vascular plant species is estimated as ca. 1800 (Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning [MESP] 2010) and comprises diverse floristic elements, in particular Balkan endemics and paleo-endemics. According to MESP, biodiversity ‘hot-spots’ are the Sharri mountains in the southwest, the Prokletije mountains (Bjeshkët e Nemuna) in the northwest, and the Koritniku and Pashtriku mountains, both situated in the south of Kosovo. The genus Tulipa in Kosovo is represented by three native species: the widespread T. australis Link (in Schrader 1799: 317), which some botanists treat as a subspecies of the tetraploid T. sylvestris Linnaeus (1753: 305), T. serbica Tatić & Krivošej (1997: 733) a species first described from Mt. Rogozna and the hill Beli Laz, two localities on the opposite sides of the Ibar river, and T. scardica Bornmüller (1923: 199), which is distributed in the Vardar valley in Macedonia and Krivenik, southern Kosovo, with an outlying locality to the west. In this paper a fourth species known from two localities in the serpentine area of Mirusha in Gjakova district, Rahoveci province in southwestern Kosovo is described. On 14 May 2010, two of the authors (L.S. & E.K.) together with Prof. F. Rexhepi and Prof. F. Millaku from Pristina University, went to the Mirusha area at the foot of Mt Kozniku in Rahoveci province, Kosovo to investigate plants that had been earlier reported by E.K. as T. scardica (Rexhepi & Krasniqi 2004). They also planned to compare the material with the recently described T. albanica Kit Tan & Shuka from the Kukësi district in northeastern Albania, occurring less than a hundred kilometres from this site (Shuka et al. 2010: 19). In mid-May, most of the Mirusha plants had finished flowering and were in early fruit. Some important floral characters were observed but we wanted to be convinced as to their consistency. Therefore L.S., together with Z. Hashani (PhD student at Department of Biology, Tirana University), went to the area again in early May and mid-July 2011 to confirm initial observations. Morphometric measurements were obtained from numerous plants in full bloom and later, in fruit. We are now convinced that the Mirusha plants differ from T. scardica to which it had previously been assigned (Rexhepi & Krasniqi 2004, Shuka et al. 2010) and furthermore, it appears to be more similar to T. serbica. Accepted by Maarten Christenhusz, 25 Jul. 2012; published online in PDF: 8 Aug. 2012 1 Description of new species Tulipa kosovarica Kit Tan, Shuka & Krasniqi, sp. nov.― Figs. 1–4 FIGURE 1. Tulipa kosovarica: A, whole plant; B, bulb; C, capsule; D, seeds. Scalebar 1 cm. 2 • Phytotaxa 62 © 2012 Magnolia Press SHUKA ET AL. Distinguished from Tulipa albanica and T. scardica by its white perianth base and white filaments, and from T. serbica by its cerise-magenta, obovate inner perianth segments, which are not pale pink nor rhomboidal in shape, as well as by its clearly demarcated white perianth base. Type:—KOSOVO (Southwestern Kosovo: UTM 34T DN4). Rahoveci province: Mirusha region at the foot of Mt Kozniku, N-facing serpentine slopes on the left side of Mrasori tributary, branch of White Drini river, between Mrasori and Llapçevë villages, ca. 1.5 km above the railroad, in open thermophilous woodland dominated by Quercus pubescens and Juniperus oxycedrus, 420–480 m, 42°30’N, 20°34’E, 20 May 2011, flowers red to scarlet, white at the base, Shuka 4578 (holotype TIR, isotypes C, LD, herb. Pristina, private herbarium Shuka). FIGURE 2. Flowers: A & B, Tulipa kosovarica; C, T. albanica; D, T. scardica. Scalebar 1 cm. Perennial herb. Bulb 3–4 × 1.5–2.0 cm, ovoid, not stoloniferous; tunics blackish-brown, chartaceous; inner surface densely covered with straight, 2.5–4.0 mm long silky adpressed unicellular basifixed hairs. Stem erect, 15–30 cm above ground (excluding subterranean portion), glabrous, glaucous to greyish-green. Leaves 3–5, lower ones alternate, upper two usually opposite, glaucous to greyish-green, erect-patent, not exceeding TULIPA KOSOVARICA, A NEW SPECIES OF TULIP FROM KOSOVO Phytotaxa 62 © 2012 Magnolia Press • 3 the flower, entire; lowermost leaves (at ground level) 10–26 × 1.5–3.0 cm, broadly canaliculate, weakly undulate, linear-lanceolate, apiculate to subacute, cucullate when young, ciliolate in lower 2/3; upper cauline leaves 5–11 × 0.5–0.8 cm, smaller and narrower, acute to acuminate. Flowers solitary, erect, campanulate, glabrous. Perianth segments slightly unequal, cerise to dark magenta-red with white apiculate papyraceous tips and white to whitish base occupying the lower quarter, the white base less visible on external surface of perianth segments and not conspicuous at all in dried material. White base sometimes suffused by the reddish- purple colour of the perianth segments, resulting in obtrullate blackish-violet basal patches or dark shadows. Outer segments 3.5–5.0 (–6.0) × 1.5–2.3 cm elliptic, attenuating to a narrow claw at base; inner segments 3.0–4.7 × 1–2 cm, obovate to oblanceolate, obtuse to subacute. Filaments 10–13 mm, white, glabrous, dilated at base; anthers 8–12 mm, blackish-maroon, oblong to elliptical, shorter than filaments; pollen purplish- maroon to dull purple at anthesis, very rarely yellow, olivaceous with age. Ovary subsessile, 15–20 mm long (longer than filaments at anthesis), yellowish-green; stigmas 3, recurved-decurrent, pale green, papillose. Capsule 3.0–3.5 × 1.5–2.2 cm, ellipsoid, apiculate, shortly stipitate, with distinct transverse veins throughout, pale brown. Seeds 7–8 × 6 mm (including the 0.8–1.2 mm broad wing), flat, triangular-deltoid; brown, turning dark reddish-brown at maturity. Flowering late April to mid-May; capsules dehiscing end of June to mid-July. FIGURE 3. A & B, flower and rhomboidal inner perianth segment without white base of T. serbica; C, obovate inner perianth segment with white base of T. kosovarica. Scalebar 1 cm. Tulipa kosovarica (Figs. 1 & 2A–B) differs from T. scardica by its white or whitish perianth base that is sometimes masked by obtrullate patches of maroon and violet. However, the perianth base is never yellow with blackish-purple blotches as is typical for T. scardica (Fig. 2D). An important difference lies in the stamen colour: the filaments of T. kosovarica are always white and the anthers and pollen maroon to dark purple, very rarely yellow. In T. scardica the filaments are never white but dark-coloured, the anthers are blackish-maroon and the pollen greenish-yellow at dehiscence (Fig. 4D), very rarely blackish-maroon. From T. serbica, the most obvious difference is in the shape and colour of the inner perianth segments and colour of the pollen grains. The inner perianth segments in T. kosovarica are obovate (Fig. 3C) and cerise-magenta (Fig. 2A–B), but in T. serbica they are more rhomboidal in shape (Fig. 3B) and pale pink with a darker pink broad central band so that the segment appears pink with broad white margins (Fig. 3A). The base of the perianth in T. serbica is usually pale pink within and not demarcated in colour from the rest of the perianth; it is rarely 4 • Phytotaxa 62 © 2012 Magnolia Press SHUKA ET AL. whitish to pale green and never with black blotches. The pollen is yellow (Fig. 4B), very rarely purplish- maroon. White-flowered individuals exist in the wild as noted by Prodanović and Krivošej (Stevanović, pers. comm. 2009). Tulipa albanica differs from the other three named species by its combination of yellow perianth bases without black blotches, yellow filaments (Fig. 2C) and violet-purple pollen (Fig. 4C). The morphological differences in the four species are summarized in Table 1. TABLE 1. Comparison of morphological characters in Tulipa albanica, T. kosovarica, T. scardica and T. serbica. Characters Tulipa albanica Tulipa kosovarica Tulipa scardica Tulipa serbica Leaf number 3–5 (2–)3–4 (–5) 3–5 3–5 Lowermost leaf canaliculate, strongly broadly canaliculate, broadly canaliculate, canaliculate, weakly undulate weakly undulate weakly undulate undulate Lowermost leaves 10–25 × 1.0–3.5 cm 10–22 × 1.5–3.0 cm 10–20 × 1.5–2.5 cm 10–30 × 1.5–3.0 cm Leaf margin ciliolate in basal 1/3 ciliolate in basal

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