Karyotype Analysis of Five Bellevalia Lapeyr. Species (Asparagaceae) from Turkey

Abstract

The chromosome numbers and karyotypes of five species of the genus Bellevalia distributed in Turkey were analyzed. These taxa are B. anatolica B. Mathew & Ozhatay, B. fominii Woronow, B. kurdistanica Feinbrun, B. rixii Wendelbo, B. turcica Pinar & Eroglu. Three of them (B. anatolica, B. rixii and B. turcica) are endemic in Turkey. The chromosome numbers of all studied taxa were determeined as 2n=2x= 8. Haploid chromosome lengths varied from 57.78 mu m (B. fominii) to 68.17 mu m (B. anatolica) among species. Karyotype analysis showed that Bellevalia taxa generally have median (m), submedian (sm), and subterminal (st) chromo-somes, but not subterminal chromosomes in B. fominii species.