In this study, 2 new species of Cirsium Mill. sect. Epitrachys DC., Cirsium balikesirense Yıldız, Arabacı & Dirmenci and C. nerimaniae Yıldız, Dirmenci & Arabacı from Turkey, are described and illustrated. The differences between the new species and their allies are discussed. Ecological habit, localities, key of allied species, and a distribution map of the species are given. | Turkish Journal of Botany Turk J Bot (2013) 37: 1045-1054 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Two new species of Cirsium (Asteraceae) and notes on allies from Turkey 1 2 3, Bayram YILDIZ , Turan ARABACI , Tuncay DİRMENCİ * Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science, Balıkesir University, Balıkesir, Turkey 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, İnönü University, Malatya, Turkey 3 Department of Biology Education, Necatibey Education Faculty, Balıkesir University, Balıkesir, Turkey 1 Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: In this study, 2 new species of Cirsium Mill. sect. Epitrachys DC., Cirsium balikesirense Yıldız, Arabacı & Dirmenci and C. nerimaniae Yıldız, Dirmenci & Arabacı from Turkey, are described and illustrated. The differences between the new species and their allies are discussed. Ecological habit, localities, key of allied species, and a distribution map of the species are given. Key words: Compositae, Epitrachys, morphology, new species, revision 1. Introduction The genus Cirsium Mill. (thistle) is one of the largest genera of Asteraceae, and it comprises more than 250 perennial, biennial, or rarely annual spiny species distributed in the northern hemisphere in Europe; North Africa; East, Central, and Southwest Asia; and North and Central America (Charadze, 1963; Davis and Parris, 1975a; Petrak, 1979; Kadereit and Jeffrey, 2007). The most recent revisionary study on Cirsium species growing in Turkey was carried out approximately 40 years ago by Davis and Parris (1975a) for the Flora of Turkey. In that study, 52 species (65 taxa) were given under 3 sections. [sect. Cirsium, sect. Epitrachys DC., and sect. Cephalonoplos (Neck.) DC.]. Additional taxonomic treatments have dealt with the distribution of the genus in supplements and 5 new species (6 taxa) were given (Davis et al., 1988; Güner et al., .
