Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 127, July 2015, pp. 9-15. | Page 2

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Centaurea and its relatives were handled broadly in respect of
taxonomy during the last ten years in Turkey. In recent years, many
species of Centaurea had been discovered, illustrated and described
(Wagenitz, Ertugrul & Dural 1998; Aytac & Duman 2005; Mozaffarian
2006; Uzunhisarcikli, Dogan & Duman 2007; Duran, Ozturk & Dogan
2009; Mozaffarian 2010; Köse and Alan 2013; Negaresh, Ranjbar &
Rahminejad 2014; Bancheva, Kaya & Binzet 2014; Cinbilgei, Eren &
Duman 2014; Bona 2015) in particular in Turkey and Iran. There are
about 200 species which were identified in Turkey and they are divided
into 34 sections (Köse & Alan 2013). The genus is represented by 70
species in Iran (Ranjbar 2012) and only 25 species in Palestine (Danin
1998).
During a flora survey in the Village of Anata, north east Jerusalem,
Palestine, an unidentified specimen of the genes Centaurea with fairly
long basal leaves was collected. This specimen has been compared with
other Centaurea specimens collected and conserved in the author's local
herbarium from the last ten years. Several communications were made
with local and Turkish botanists asking about this new Centaurea sp. It
was confirmed that they did not see this species before. Therefore,
description and illustration were carried out and location was mapped.

Figure 1. A specimen of Centaurea anathoth Hali, 2015, with dense basal leaves.

Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 127 – July 2015