Dionysia persica Majidi & Alipour, 2025

Alipour, Sajad, Majidi, Ramiar & Jalilian, Nastaran, 2025, Dionysia persica (Primulaceae), a new species from Shiraz, Iran, Phytotaxa 694 (1), pp. 86-92 : 87-90

Dionysia persica Majidi & Alipour sp. nov. ( Figs. 2–3 )

Diagnosis:— Dionysia persica is similar to D. bokharii ( Figs. 2–4 ), but is distinguished from that species by leaves with usually deeply lobed and pinnately veined with weakly sclerified veins (vs. Leaves usually shallowly lobed and veins thin with thin sclereid caps); much shorter calyx (2–4 mm vs. 6–8 mm) and corolla tube (6–9 mm vs. 14–23 mm), smaller corolla limb across (5.5–7.5 mm vs. 9–13 mm) with narrower and more distinctly emarginate lobes (vs. entire to usuallys shallowly notched), fewer ovules (3–4 vs. 8–10) and seeds (2–3 vs. 4–8) and homostylous (vs. heterostyle with long exserted style in longistylous flowers ( Table 1).

Type:— IRAN. Fars province: Shiraz, Koh Sorkh, 2400–2700 m a.s.l. (29°48’0.000”N, 52°18’52.450”E) 2 April, 2024, Majidi 11124 (holotype RANK!).

Etymology:— The specific epithet is derived from Persis (now Fars); in the form Persia widely used for current Iran up to 1935.

Distribution and habitat:— Dionysia persica is known only from a very restricted area in Koh Sorkh, Shiraz, within Fars province. Some species that share the new species immediate surrounding habitat include Parietaria judaica L., Aubrieta parviflora Boiss. and Adianthum capillus-veneris L. It belongs to the Irano-Turanian floristic zone of Iran (Takhtajan 1986).

Description:— Cushions not very dense (soft), from 10–40 cm in diameter. Stems only slowly increasing in width, clad throughout with pale brown thin rather fragile but long persistent marcescent leaves with contiguous leaf generations. Leaves 3–7(–10) × 1–2.2 mm, oblong or subspathulate in outline, cuneate at base, apex obtuse, shallowly to usually deeply lobed, rather thin and papery, pinnately veined with weakly sclerified veins ( Fig 2 ); pubescent with mostly glandular hairs 0.1–0.5 mm long. Flowers single, sessile. Bracts 1–3, entire, shorter than calyx, similar to calyx lobes, 1–2 mm long, ca. 0.5 mm wide. Calyx 2–4 mm, split to the base into erect acute linear-oblong to linearoblanceolate lobes, hairy like the leaves. Corolla yellow, tube 6–9 mm long, densely hairy (most hairs glandular), with hairs up to 0.5 mm, very rarely with apical farina; 5.5–7.5 mm across, lobes obovate, distinctly emarginate at apex. Flowers with stamens inserted in upper fourth of the corolla tube, and stigma reaching stamens; anthers ca. 1 mm long. Ovary with 3 to 4 ovules. Capsule narrowly ovate, 2.2–2.5 mm, 2–3 seeded, valves thick. Seeds ovate, 1–1.5 long, 0.8–1 mm wide ( Table 1, Figs. 2–5 ).

Phenology— Flowering in April–May, fruiting in July–September

Conservation status: According to our observation, the number of individuals of D. persica is low and therefore the species is obviously in danger. The population size of the new species is very small and the numbers of individuals is less than 250. The distribution of D. persica is restricted to a single location and an area less than 100 km ² (criterion B 1). We suggest that this species should be placed under the IUCN category ‘Critically Endangered’ (CR) ( IUCN 2024).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Veins in the cleared leaf of (A,B) Dionysia bokharii and (C) Dionysia persica, Photo by Magnus Liden, 2024.

FIGURE 3. Dionysia persica, Cushion form (A, B), leaves and flowers (C) and habitat (D)—Koh Sorkh, Shiraz. Photo by Majidi.

FIGURE 4. Dionysia bokharii, Cushion form (A, B), leaves and flowers (C) and habitat (D)—Sabz Poshan, Shiraz. Photo by Majidi & Alipour.