New herbaceous plant species discovered in northwest Turkey

BOLU

A new plant belonging to the Iridaceae family has been discovered in northwestern Turkey.

A report on the plant, published in the journal Phytotaxa, said its scientific name is Gladiolus Aladagensis, named after Aladağlar, a mountainous and isolated region in the province of Bolu, where it was discovered.

The native plant was added to herbariums through a joint research by Mehmet Sağıroğlu from Sakarya University and İsmail Eker from Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University (BAİBÜ) who carried out a field study in Bolu province for more than two years.

Sağıroğlu said that the Iridaceae family boasts nearly 300 species worldwide, including 13 in Turkey alone, most of them native.

“We discovered that this plant is a plant that grows only in the Aladağlar region. It does not grow in any other area in the country or in the world,” Sağıroğlu said, adding that the plant is a unique species.

He stated that besides the use of these plants as food, they are used in traditional and complementary medicine in different parts of the world, especially in the African continent.

The academic also noted that they revealed in their studies that the flowering and fruity specimens of the plant should be collected more and that they prepared their future projects accordingly.