Ricotia
Ricotia in Antalya
Outline
There are six Ricotia in the Antalya region, 3 are higher-altitude rather squattish perennials (1000+ m: davisiana, varians, candiriana), 3 are lower-altitude upright annuals (0-1000 m: tenuifolia, carnosula, sinuata). They are Turkish endemics, with the exception that R. sinuata extends into Lebanon-Syria. A 7th, R. aucheri, is found to the farish NE of Turkey and extends into Transcaucasus (photos). No doubt more might be found. This document helps identify them in a friendly way, and at the end provides botanical descriptions from the literature. There is a nice map showing all the species except the later-discovered candiriana on p3 of this PDF which is worth consulting when identifying what you have.
Perennials (1000-3000 m)
Perennials typically have a thickened stem base, branching at or near the base, with leaves not wilting early, unless short-lived. These are low, rather squattish in appearance, with many branched stems, inflorescences with c. 6-15 flowers. 'pinnate' means the leaf has projecting lobes that run in a line.
• Densely short-hairy, leaves formed of 3 (occ 4) broad roundish leaflets (like Trifolium repens), fruit long (5 cm) 6-12 seeded (2000-2300 m, Tahtali Dağ above Kemer) - R. davisiana (herbarium specimens, incl. drawing and photo).
• Hairy esp. near base, leaves pinnate with 3-5 narrow lobes, fruit long (to 6 cm) and narrow 9-17 seeded (1160 m, Kumluca, upper part of Alakır Valley) - R. candiriana (PDF with photos or online photo).
• Hairless, leaves pinnate with 3-5 elliptic lobes, fruit short (1.5 cm) oval, 1(3) seeded (2200-2500 m, Isparta, Dedegöl Dağ above Obruk Yayla) - R. varians (herbarium specimens and photo)
• R. isatoides on Karpathos (Κάρπαθος; between Rhodes and Crete) is like R. varians, hairless and fruits oval with 1 seed, but leaf lobes unlobed, crenate or broadly 3-5-lobed, and short-lived so with some annual qualities (herbarium specimens and illustration on PDF page 199).
Annuals (0-1000 m)
Annuals would tend to have weak bases lacking a tough surface 'bark', with leaves wilting early at fruiting.
• Fruits like coins with 1 seed, leaf lobing thread-like (to 2-pinnate), c. 600 m - R. tenuifolia (herbarium specimens and illustration and photo). Turkey.
• Fruits long and straight with many seeds, leaf lobing broader (to pinnate), 0-1000 m - R. carnosula and R. sinuata (as follows); when good fruits are available they fit with the following schema, however many fruits are poorly formed and geographic location east/west of the city, as determined by molecular studies (see p3 of the 2015 PDF), is going to represent the presumed identity, although caution must be added that molecular studies tend to examine a limited number of samples so one should be circumspect, and if it is ever demonstrated there are populations of either on both sides of the Antalya basin then this geographic approach will need qualifying. The earlier latin descriptions indicate the plant is hairy and some iNaturalist photos are clearly hairy and/or glandy (example, pic 5), at times somewhat densely, however in the Flora of Turkey they have somehow become portrayed as glabrous.
--- Region extending westward from city (properly-formed fully mature fruits tend to be long with straight edges (example, pic 2), to 12 seeded, with final tip rather abruptly narrowing, although there are plenty of poorly formed ones) - R. carnosula. Turkey.
--- Region extending eastward from city (properly-formed fully mature fruits more likely to be wavy-edged, with seeds further apart, from which the name sinuata must come, to 8 seeded, with final tip much more gradual (example, pic 3); there is a region of them on the E side of the Antalya basin and another more distant near Osmaniye - R. sinuata. Turkey, Lebanon-Syria.
• R. cretica on Crete has much wider pods than the above (8-9 mm vs 4-5 mm) (iNat Pictures).
Literature
• 2019 Ricotia candiriana (Brassicaceae), a new species from southern Anatolia, Turkey by Ayşen Özçandir, Candan Aykurt, Bariş Özüdoğru (PDF).
• 2016 Atlas of the Aegean Flora Part 1 by Arne Strid (JStor, subscription).
• 2015 - "Phylogeny, diversification and biogeographic implications of the eastern Mediterranean endemic genus Ricotia (Brassicaceae)" by Barış Özüdoğru, Galip Akaydın,2 Sadık Erik, Ihsan A. Al-Shehbaz, Klaus Mummenhoff (PDF).
• 1993 Flora Europaea ed. 2 vol. 1 by T. Tutin et al.
• 1965 Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands by P H Davis.
• 1951 The Genus Ricotia by B L Burtt (JStor, subscription).
• 1867 Flora Orientalis, vol 1 by Boissier (view page).
• 1854 Boissier Diagnoses plantarum Orientalium novarum, Series 1 by Boissier (view page).
• 1806 Flora Graeca by J Sibthorp (view page).
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