Two new species of Crocus series Scardici from the western Balkans

Abstract

Crocus series Scardici has only two members, C. scardicus and C. pelistericus distributed at higher elevations in the Balkan Peninsula. In the course of our research, we discovered two new species growing on alpine meadows and pastures in the serpentine massifs in Albania and limestones in North Macedonia, respectively. The morphology and phylogenetic analyses (two nuclear single-copy markers, nrITS, two chloroplast markers) place the new species within series Scardici. Both new species are closely related to C. scardicus, but morphologically and ecologically clearly differentiated. We also measured genome sizes for all series Scardici species and report here the largest genomes found up to now in crocuses. The impact of different habitat types and isolation on separate mountain ranges in this alpine group of plants is discussed, too.