Rediscovery of Crocus biflorus var. estriatus (Iridaceae) and its taxonomic characterisation

Abstract

The Italian endemic Crocusbiflorus usually shows white or lilac flowers with three-to-five striking violet longitudinal stripes on the outer tepals, but unstriped plants were recorded in the past. These plants were originally described as C.annulatussubvar.estriatus, and subsequently recombined as a variety of C.biflorus. The rediscovery of such plants in Toscana gave us the opportunity to clarify their systematic relationships, so that we typified the name, and performed karyological and ITS analyses. These plants share the same chromosome number (2 n = 2 x = 8) and ITS sequence with C.biflorus s. str.