Herein a new species, Alyssum amasianum, is described and illustrated from North Anatolia. The new species is very similar to A. hirsutum subsp. caespitosum but differs in the shape and indumentum of leaves, trichome type of the fruits, and margin of the seeds. | Turkish Journal of Botany Turk J Bot (2016) 40: 402-411 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Alyssum amasianum (Brassicaceae), a new species from North Anatolia, Turkey 1, 2 3 Osman KARABACAK *, Ahmet DURAN , Mustafa ÇELİK Department of Biology, Polatlı Faculty of Science and Literature, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey 3 Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey 1 Received: Accepted/Published Online: Final Version: Abstract: Herein a new species, Alyssum amasianum, is described and illustrated from North Anatolia. The new species is very similar to A. hirsutum subsp. caespitosum but differs in the shape and indumentum of leaves, trichome type of the fruits, and margin of the seeds. The ecology, biogeography, and conservation status of the new species are discussed. The leaf, fruit, and seed surface micromorphology of A. amasianum, A. hirsutum subsp. caespitosum, A. hirsutum subsp. hirsutum, A. strigosum subsp. strigosum, and A. xanthocarpum were also examined by scanning electron microscope. Key words: Alyssum, Alysseae, Cruciferae, SEM, Turkey 1. Introduction The family Brassicaceae is distributed worldwide across all continents except for Antarctica (Koch and Kiefer, 2006). It consists of 49 tribes, about 321 genera, and 3660 species (Al-Shehbaz, 2012). The Brassicaceae, or mustard family, is easily distinguished from other flowering plant families with floral and fruit morphology by the cruciform corolla, tetradynamous stamens, and a siliqua often with a septum (Koch et al., 2012). The tribe Alysseae is composed of 24 genera and about 277 species, 114 of which are placed in Alyssum (Warwick et al., 2006; Al-Shehbaz, 2012; Španiel et al., 2015). The genus Alyssum is distributed primarily in Europe, Southwest Asia, and northern Africa (Al-Shehbaz, .
