Morphology, anatomy, palynology and conservation status of Achillea ketenoglui H. Duman

Achillea ketenoglui H. Duman is an endangered species in Turkey. Its morphological, anatomical and palynological features were studied. Microphotographs of the cross sections of stem and root of this species are provided along with the detailed anatomical features and their morphological description with the help of drawings. Distribution and ecology of A. ketenoglui were determined and IUCN risk category was revised. Microphotographs of scanning electron and light microscope was studied, evaluated and discussed for their taxonomic use. Introduction Asteraceae (Compositae) is one of the largest families of flowering plants occurring all over the world. According to the angiospermic phylogeny Asteraceae is placed in Asterideae/Asterales. Its members are distributed particularly in semiarid region of the tropics and subtropics with about 1600 1700 genera and 24000 species around the world (APG 1998, APG II 2003, APG III 2009, APG IV 2016). The Achillea L. one of the genera of Asteraceae belongs to tribe Anthemideae. It is represented by 115 taxa throughout the world and by 58 taxa in Turkey. Because of its high endemism ratio (53%) Achillea L. is considered as an important genus among the Asteraceae genera available in Turkey Arabacı 2012, Aytaç et al. 2016). Previously Achillea L. was revised by Huber-Morath (1975) in the flora of Turkey. Thereafter Duman (2000) added new species in second supplement of the Flora of Turkey. The new species were collected and described by Aytaç et al. (1990) from marly steppes between Polatli and Sivrihisar (Duman 2000). Studies were carried out on Achillea taxa by both local and foreign workers on different aspects, mostly on chemical components and their importance for anticancer, antimicrobial etc. (Tabanca et al. 2016, Haliloğlu et al. 2017, Demirci et al. 2018, Özek et al. 2018). Studies on morphology, anatomy and palynology of A. ketenoglui H. Duman are still limited (Arabacı 2006, Akyalçın et al. 2009, 2011, 2014, Grytsyk 2016, Dauti et al. 2017). In the present study the detailed morphological, anatomical and palynological features of the Achillea ketenoglui H. Duman were investigated for the first time. Materials and Methods The specimens of Achillea ketenoglui were collected from Günyüzü, between GünyüzüYazır, (Eskişehir-Turkey) gypsicolous area, N 39° 25' 40.1" E 31° 49' 29.8", 810 m., 29.06.2018, OUFE: 18242 (Fig. 1). In order to carry out a systematic study of the plant material, herbarium samples were prepared and kept as voucher specimens at the Eskişehir Osmangazi University Herbarium (OUFE). For the anatomical studies, fresh plant specimens collected from the natural habitat were fixed in 70% alcohol. Transverse sections of the stem and root were made by hand with the help of a scalpel. *Author for correspondence: .