''Centaurea tchihatcheffii'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. The flowers are most attractive as the pale or dark pinkish-red marginal florets (the most frequent colour form) take on an iridescent shimmer in the sun and wind, hence the vernacular name ''Yanardöner'', meaning ‘

iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...

flower’. It flowers from late April to mid-June and in cultivation even earlier, e.g., March in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. The peak flowering period is mid-May and in earlier years it was sold in some quantity by street florists in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

. It is mainly bee-, bug- and beetle-pollinated. Ants play an important role in seed dispersal and the fully ripe fat achenes are a delight for pigeons which settle down to feed in large flocks. The species is of taxonomic interest as it has some rather unusual and unique features not existing in any other ''

Centaurea ''Centaurea'' () is a genus of over 700 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are found only north of the equator, mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere; the Middle East and surrounding reg ...

''. For example, the marginal florets are

funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...

-shaped with

crenate A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

margins. The

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

-tube is provided with glands at the tips of the

appendages An appendage (or outgrowth) is an external body part, or natural prolongation, that protrudes from an organism's body. In arthropods, an appendage refers to any of the homologous body parts that may extend from a body segment, including anten ...

. Boissier (1875) established it as belonging to the genus ''Melanoloma'' Cass., proposing the combination ''Melanoloma tchihatchewi'' (Fischer & C.A. Meyer) Boiss. However, the type species of ''Melanoloma'' is ''Centaurea pullata'' which has no affinities at all with ''C. tchihatcheffii''. The species was placed in ''Centaurea'' sect. Cyanus (Mill.) W.D.J. Koch by Wagenitz (1975) and currently in ''Cyanus'' Mill. (''Cyanus tchihatcheffii'' (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Wagenitz & Greuter. Three annual members of this section with which ''C. tchihatcheffii'' has a superficial resemblance are ''

Centaurea cyanus ''Centaurea cyanus'', commonly known as cornflower or bachelor's button, is an annual flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to Europe. In the past, it often grew as a weed in cornfields (in the broad sense of "corn", referring to gra ...

'' L., the nomenclatural type, with the chromosome number of 2n = 24 (x = 12), ''Centaurea cyanoides'' Wahlenb. with 2n = 18 (x = 9) and ''

Centaurea depressa ''Centaurea depressa'', the low cornflower, is a species of ''Centaurea''. It is native to southwestern and central Asia. Its common name is Iranian knapweed. The plant grows to 0.3 m (1 ft) tall and flowers from July to August. It ca ...

'' M. Bieb. with 2n=16 (x=8), (Wagenitz and Hellwig 1996). However, ''C. tchihatcheffii'' has 2n=20, with x=10 (Gömürgen and Adigüzel 2001), the same number as occurring in the derived species of the perennial section C. sect. Protocyanus (Dobrocz.) Czerep. ''Centaurea tchihatcheffii'' Fischer & C.A. Meyer was first described in Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. 4, 1: 31 (1854). Tchihatcheff’s original material from his travels to

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

was deposited with the

Société botanique de France The Société botanique de France (SBF) is a French learned society founded on 23 April 1854. At its inaugural meeting it stated its purpose as "to contribute to the progress of botany and related sciences and to facilitate, by all means at its di ...

which collections were later included in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(P). As the novelties from

were described by Fischer & C.A. Meyer it would seem more likely that the specimens on which the descriptions were based were those duplicates sent to LE (thus potential holotypes) and not those remaining at P (part of the original set). Thus the holotype of ''Michauxia tchihatchewii'' Fischer & C.A. Meyer is stated as deposited in LE, and the late

Jaakko Jalas Arvo Jaakko Juhani Jalas (7 May 1920 – 1 December 1999) was a Finnish botanist. He worked in the University of Helsinki. Career He began his university studies in 1938, one year before the Russian–Finnish Winter War, where he fought on the f ...

(Helsinki) typified ''Thymus fallax'' with the specimen deposited at LE (holo. LE, fragm. W) and ''Thymus pectinatus'' collected by Tchihatcheff from the same locality as the ''Michauxia'', as holo.? LE; iso. W. However, only the fragments at W, not at LE, have been seen by Jalas.

References

*Tan K & Vural M. 2007. ''Centaurea tchihatcheffii'' Fischer & C.A. Meyer (Asteraceae), ''Pl. Syst. Evol.'' 263: 203 - 207. *Ozel CA, Khawar KM, Mirici S, Ozcan S, Arslan O. 2006. Factors affecting in vitro plant regeneration of the critically endangered Mediterranean knapweed (Centaurea tchihatcheffii Fisch et. Mey). Naturwissenschaften 93:511-517. {{Taxonbar, from=Q5059024 tchihatcheffii Endemic flora of Turkey