Taxonomic Notes on Feather Grasses (Poaceae: Stipa) from Eastern Kazakhstan with Typification of Seven Names and One New Combination

http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.245.1.3

Taxonomic notes on feather grasses (Poaceae: Stipa) from eastern Kazakhstan with typification of seven names and one new combination

MARCIN NOBIS1,2 & POLINA D. GUDKOVA2,3 1Department of Plant Taxonomy, Phytogeography and Herbarium, Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian University, Kopernika 27, PL-31- 501 Kraków, Poland; 2Laboratory of Systematics and Phylogeny of Plants, Institute of Biology, Tomsk State University, 36 Lenin Prospekt, Tomsk, 634050, Russia 3Department of Botany, Altay State University, 61 Lenin Prospekt, Barnaul, 656049, Russia Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

The genus Stipa comprises approximately 50 taxa in Kazakhstan, of which 18 were described by Yuri A. Kotukhov from eastern Kazakhstan between 1987 and 1998. The majority of the original material of these taxa is preserved in the LE herbarium (Saint-Petersburg, Russia). Some original material of Kotukhov’s species, not mentioned in the protologues, is preserved in the KUZ (Kemerovo, Russia) and KRA (Krakow, Poland) herbaria. The present paper presents a complete list of feather grasses described by Kotukhov from Kazakhstan, with indications of types and the locations where they are preserved, lectotypification of seven names (S. akseirica, S. argillosa, S. karakabinica, S. kempirica, S. kyzylkiensis, S. azutavica, S. saikanica), one new combination (S. orientalis var. azutavica comb. nova), synonymisation of three species (S. akseirica is a synonym of S. sareptana, S. kyzylkiensis is a synonym of S. sczerbakovii, and S. saikanica is a synonym of S. lessingiana), an identification key and taxonomic notes regarding the discussed taxa.

Keywords: Taxonomy, new combination, lectotypification, synonymisation, identification key, feather grasses, Middle Asia

Introduction

The genus Stipa Linnaeus (1753: 78) comprises approximately 50 taxa in Kazakhstan (Roshevitz 1934, Drobov 1941, Gamajunova 1948, 1956, Pazij 1968, Tzvelev 1976, Kotukhov 2002, Nobis 2010, 2013, 2014, Nobis et al. 2013). Many of them were described by the eminent Kazakh-Russian taxonomist Yury A. Kotukhov. Over a period of 12 years (1987–1998), in six papers, Kotukhov described 18 new species of Stipa from eastern Kazakhstan (Kotukhov 1987, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1998a, 1998b). However, in the checklist flora of Kazakhstan (Abdulina 1999) there are 39 taxa of Stipa recognized, including only six of the 18 species described by Kotukhov. A few years later Kotukhov (2002) provided a list of 44 species of Stipa that occur in eastern Kazakhstan, along with a detailed list of their locations, although the relationships and boundaries between some of the taxa presented remain unclear. Unfortunately, Kotukhov did not provide keys in any of his papers about Stipa, which could help in identification of these taxa. Kotukhov (2002) considered seven of the taxa he described to have originated through hybridization, namely: S. argillosa Kotukhov (1998a: 11) [=S. sczerbakovii Kotukhov (1991: 872) × S. lessingiana Trinius & Ruprecht (1842: 79)], S. kamelinii Kotukhov (1998a: 10) [=S. orientalis Trinius (1829: 83) × S. zaissanica Kotukhov (1991: 873)]; S. kyzylkiensis Kotukhov (1998b: 12) [=S. capillata Linnaeus (1762: 116) × S. sczerbakovii]; S. manrakica Kotukhov (1989: 414) [=S. caucasica Schmalhauzen (1892: 293) × S. macroglossa Smirnov (1924: 47)]; S. pavlovii Kotukhov (1998a: 7) [=S. sczerbakovii × S. krylovii Roshevitz (1929: 379)]; S. tzveleviana Kotukhov (1994: 102) [=S. orientalis × S. macroglossa] and S. zaissanica [=S. orientalis × S. hohenackeriana Trinius & Ruprecht (1842: 80)]. However, they were all described as legitimate species. All of these taxa are int