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The species Astragalus podolobus is one of the endemic species of winter pastures that grows in arid and semi-arid areas in the north of Gonbad-e Kavous. To investigate effective methods of breaking seed dormancy of Astr-agalus podolobus, an experiment was carried out in the framework of a completely randomized design with 15 treatm-ents and 3 replications. Treatments included controls, 98% sulfuric acid, dry chilling for 10 and 15 days, wet chilling for 10 and 15 days, and boiling water 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 minute, respectively. Analysis of variance showed that the perc-entage and speed of germination were significant in different groups while the average time of germination in different treatments was not significant. The results of comparing mean values showed that the percentage and the speed of germination in boiling water treatments were best in comparison with other treatments with significant differences. The results of this experiment also showed that reducing the exposure time of seeds to boiling water increases the germination percentage and speed, consequently, the highest percentage and speed of germination was observed in boil-ing water 1 minute. Boiling water 1 minute treatment can increase the germination percentage up to 47% and the seed germination speed from 0.43 to 3.09 seeds per day

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Ferula stenocarpa from Apiaceae family is a perennial plant with about 2 meters height, which grows in the high temperature of sudanian regions. This research was aimed to investigate the autecology of an endemic plant to Iran, Ferula stenocarpa, in Khuzestan province. Initially, the habitat map was prepared and characteristics of the species habitat including topography, climate, soil properties, companion species, palynology, anatomical studies were determined. In addition, the phenology stage and root system was investigated. The results show that this species is distributed in the altitudes ranging from 159 to 850 m.a.s.l., with the mean annual precipitation of 112.4 to 482.9 millimeters and mean annual temperature of 24.47 to 25.93 ºC. This plant species is found in habitats with different topographic aspects and no slope limitations with slopes 40-60% as preferred slopes. Soil texture was loam, clay loam and silty loam, weak alkaline, and poor in phosphorus and nitrogen. Electrical Conductivity is 1-0.72 ds/m and soil pH of 7.47-7.85. The vegetative growth of this species starts from mid-March. The flowers appear in April and seeds ripen in late on May. The plant propagates only by seeds. Pollen is prolate, elliptic and tricolporate. The destruction of natural habitats of this plant due to overgrazing causes that we find this plant as individual and scattered spots in their natural habitat.
 

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The Palang Galoun protected region, comprising 34935 hectares, is located 75 km northwest of Najaf Abad, and 102 km northwest of Isfahan city. The aim of this research was to assess the floristic spectrum, life form varieties, chorological analysis, determination of protected status and identification of medicinal, threatened species criteria and poisonous plants of this natural heritage. Plant samples were collected during different vegetative seasons at several stages. Life forms of samples were determined and chorological analysis was performed. On the basis of the obtained results, a total of 166 species belonging to 126 genera and 39 families were identified. Six families, 23 genera and 26 species belonged to monocotyledons, whereas 33 families, 103 genera and 140 species belonged to dicotyledons. In terms of chorological analysis, 58% of plant species were distributed in the Irano-Turanian region. It is noteworthy that 44 endemic species, 97 medicinal species, 48 pasture species and 23 poisonous species were present in the studied area. Life forms were found to comprise 54% hemicryptophytes, 24% therophytes, 10% geophytes, 7% chamaephytes and 5% phanerophytes. Based on IUCN red list categories and criteria, there were 22 species in the lower risk category and seven species categorized as vulnerable case.
 

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Cousinia elymaitica, which has been collected from western Iran, is described in this paper as a new species. This new species has been assigned to the sect. Pugioniferae on the basis of its habit, purple corolla and decurrent leaves. Its closest related species is C. macroptera. A distribution map and an illustration of the related specimens have also been provided.
 

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In this study, we investigated the chromosome numbers of some endemic species distributed in East and South-East Iran. The mitotic chromosome counts were presented for the first time for six species in three angiosperm families including: Linaria iranica (2n=12), Nanorrhinum campyloceras (2n=18), Chaenorhinum grossecostatum (2n=24) (Plantaginaceae), Gaillonia bruguieri (Rubiaceae) (2n=22), Nepeta rivularis and N. assurgens (Lamiaceae) (2n=18).
 

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Vegetation is one of the most important parts of natural ecosystems that in addition to express of the growth conditions, it also shows the influence of ecological factors on the environmental condition. Investigations of plant diversity of a country are necessary for studyingthe ecosystem, pasture, plant gene bank, agriculture and medicine. On the one hand, identification of plant species of different regions provide feasibility of doing of next studies in the different fields of biological science. In this research the flora of Tang sorkh region in the Kohgiloyeh county from Kohgiloyeh-va boyerahmad province has been investigated. The area of mentioned region is 5000 hectares and it is located in 30 kilometers from the east of Yasuj. Maximum altitude of the area was between 1800-2800 m. Our research has started by collecting the essential information of the region. The plants of region have been collected and prepared for studying. several floras were used for identification the specimens and they are preserved in Alzahra University herbarium (ALUH). This investigation showed that in the Tang sorkh region, there are 46 families, 145genera, 172 species that include 6/97% of phanerophytes, 5/23% chamephyts, 43/60%hemicryptophytes, 13/95% geophytes, 28/48% therophytes. Analyses shows that most of species of region belongs to the Iran-o-Turanian region which contanins 5/69% of region’s flora. 23 species are endemic to Iran, 20 of which are rare species, 30 species are medicinal plant, 22 of which are poison. Totaly about 172 species has identified. 20 species are recorded for the first time from this province.


 

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Phelipanche pouyanii is described here as a new species from South Khorassan Province, East of Iran. Its diagnostic morphological features are the calyx teeth being far longer than the calyx tube and staminal filaments being glabrous. These characters clearly differentiated the new species from its closely related taxa, i.e., P. mutelii, P. angustelaciniata and P. nana. Results obtained from the pollen and seed micromorphological characters showed no significant taxonomic value in the delimitation of the new species from its closely related species. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences, however, showed sufficient differences to delineate the new species from its closely related species.
 

 

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The new species Onosma nuristanica is described and illustrated here on the basis of specimens collected from Parun in Nuristan and Chapa Dareh in Kunar, one of the eastern provinces of Afghanistan. An extensive review of the literature and a comparative study with specimens from several herbaria led to the determine of this new species. Our results represent significant divergence between studied specimens in terms of the most important morphological features, i.e., flower color, pedicel length, bract length filaments length, cauline shape and form.  In this article, a detailed description of the new species and a diagnostic key for Onosma species thriving in Afghanistan are provided and the new species is compared morphologically with its closely related species. In addition, a distribution map is provided for the new species and its close relatives in the area.

 

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Iran, having about 79 species of the genus Lamiaceae, is one of the regions of origin of this genus. About 77% of the identified species of the mentioned genus in Iran have been registered as exclusive species. There is an Iranian Nepeta species, which was previously taken as a separate species in botanical reference sources, but has been reclassified as a variety of Nepeta kotschyi in the flora of Iran (Jamzad, 2012). In this research, the correctness of the taxonomic position of these two species by examining their various morphological and micromorphological traits such as plant height, leaf size, canopy, type of hairs and nuts, using stereo electron microscope (SEM) photos and SPSS statistical studies. The results of morphological and microstructural studies of the two species N. persica and N. kotschyi showed that there is a significant difference in the characteristics such as the shape of the leaf, the hairs of its apertures and also the height of the two species. Although these differences in the size and shape of the seeds were not clearly observed, in this study, both N. kotschyi and N. persica species had reticulated nuts with papilus. Also, the appearance of the long hairs on the leaves of the two species is completely different. The hairs in N. persica species have papilus, but the hairs in N. persica species have a smooth surface. Therefore, it was suggested that the two species are independent.