Biologists from the University of Helsinki and the Institute of Biology and Soil Science in Bishkek have found a new species of onion in the Babash-Ata Mountains, Kyrgyzstan.
Allium spathulatum, a close relative to the newly found Allium formosum (Georgy Lazkov / CC-BY 3.0)
Situated at the foothills of the Western Tian-Shan, Kyrgyzstan is home to a diverse range of vascular plants, many of which are endemic and can only be found in very narrowly circumscribed areas. Such is the case for the onion species Allium spathulatum that had long remained undetected. The species occurs in the low-altitude forest zone (5,250-5,600 feet above sea level), dwelling in river valleys, on open sunny slopes with sparse savanna-type vegetation or sheltered by stones.
The plants grow clustered in small patches, suggesting the most successful establishment nearby mature plants. When originally found, the species was considered unique in the subgenus Allium because of its unusual spatule-like bracts subtending pedicels. It probably belongs to an old phylogenetic lineage that has archaic characters and is survived in very few representative species.
The newly discovered species, closely related to A. spathulatum, has been named Allium formosum. The name is derived from the Latin word for ‘beautiful’ (formosum) because of its elegant habit and beautiful coloration of the flower, transitional between deeply pink and purple. Its description appears in the open access journal Phytokeys.
The new plant is possibly a very narrow endemic species of the Babash-Ata Mountains, Kyrgyzstan, so far known only from the type locality.
The distance between the localities of A. spathulatum and A. formosum, both narrow endemics of mountains surrounding the eastern end of Fergana valley, is about 38 miles.
A line drawing of the new species Allium formosum (Nijolė Kalinauskaitė / CC-BY 3.0)
The area of the eastern part of the Chatkal Range and the northern outliers of the Fergana Range (Babash-Ata and neighboring mountains) harbor many other narrow endemics of Allium, and this discovery stresses the need of further explorations and plant protection in this area.
“Because of the vulnerability of the species, we anticipate its inclusion in the forthcoming Red Data Book of Central Asia and the next edition of the Red Data Book of Kyrgyzstan,” said first study author Dr Alexander Sennikov from the University of Helsinki’s Finnish Museum of Natural History.
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Bibliographic information: Sennikov AN, Lazkov GA. 2013. Allium formosum Sennikov & Lazkov (Amaryllidaceae), a new species from Kyrgyzstan. Phytokeys 21: 29; doi: 10.3897/Phytokeys.21.4130
