Corm tunic morphology of Turkish Crocoideae (Iridaceae) and their systematic significance

Abstract

The corms of the Crocoideae vary in size, shape, number of internodes and length, the tunic structure of which often supplies good taxonomic characters. We here present detailed corm and tunic drawings and crystal types of Crocus L., Romulea Maratti and Gladiolus L. for the first time. Crocus taxa show tunic characteristics that are significantly different from each other. Romulea shows useful taxonomic characters only on the margins of the tunics that is covering the basal ridge. Tunic characters of the studied Gladiolus species are not as stable as in the other genera. The crystal types of the corm tunics of the studies taxa have been identified in Crocus: typical; small and thin square shaped, relatively short and thick, arrow-shaped styloids. Romulea has regularly lined, hexagonal crystals on tunics. Gladiolus taxa have typical styloids and crystalline granules.