A new species, Cirsium bozkirensis , Dirmenci & Tugay (Asteraceae), Cirsium sect. Epitrachys DC, is described from Konya Province, South Anatolia, Turkey. Diagnostic and morphological characteristics that distinguish it from allied species C. cephalotes Boiss. and SEM photograph | Turkish Journal of Botany Turk J Bot (2017) 41: 375-382 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article A new species of Cirsium sect. Epitrachys (Asteraceae: Cardueae) from the south of Turkey 1 2 3, 2 Hayri DUMAN , Osman TUGAY , Tuncay DİRMENCİ *, Kuddisi ERTUĞRUL 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey 3 Department of Biology Education, Necatibey Education Faculty, Balıkesir University, Balıkesir, Turkey Received: Accepted/Published Online: Final Version: Abstract: A new species, Cirsium bozkirensis , Dirmenci & Tugay (Asteraceae), Cirsium sect. Epitrachys DC, is described from Konya Province, South Anatolia, Turkey. Diagnostic and morphological characteristics that distinguish it from allied species C. cephalotes Boiss. and C. pugnax Sommier & Levier. are provided. A description, distribution map, and taxonomic comments on the new species and allied species are given. SEM photograph about setae, stem indumentum, and achene of new and allied species are obtained and characters are discussed. Key words: Cirsium, Compositae, endemic, Konya, Turkey 1. Introduction The genus Cirsium Mill. is one of the largest genera in Asteraceae. It contains about 250 species, which are mainly distributed in Europe, North Africa, East Asia, Central Asia, SW Asia, and North and Central America (Charadze, 1963; Davis and Parris, 1975; Petrak, 1979; Kadereit and Jeffrey, 2007). In addition to the Flora of Turkey (Davis and Parris, 1975), nine species belonging to the sect. Epitrachys DC. and the sect. Cirsium (Daşkın et al., 2006; Yıldız and Dirmenci, 2008; Yıldız et al., 2009a, 2009b, 2011, 2013; Arabacı and Dirmenci, 2011; Fırat, 2016) and two hybrids (Yıldız et al., 2016) were added recently. Finally, the genus Cirsium is represented by 67 species (79 taxa, 32 endemic) and
