''Vuralia'' is a

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

belonging to subfamily Faboideae of the

legume Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

family,

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the area surrounding lakes

Akşehir Akşehir is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Konya Province, Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 93,965 (2022). It was known historically as Philomelium. The town is situated at the edge of a fertile plain, on the north ...

and

Eber Eber (; ; ) is an ancestor of the Ishmaelites and the Israelites according to the Generations of Noah in the Book of Genesis () and the Books of Chronicles (). Lineage Eber (Hebrew: Ever) was a great-grandson of Noah's son Shem and the father ...

in southwestern

Türkiye Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and ...

. It has a

chromosome number Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...

of 2''n'' = 18. The single species ''Vuralia turcica'' was discovered by Turkish botanists in 1982 and is found only on the shores of lakes Akşehir and Eber. The species is critically endangered, being on the verge of extinction in its native range. The local names of this species translate as Eber yellow and yellow licorice. ''V. turcica'' was formerly placed in the genus ''

Thermopsis ''Thermopsis'' is a genus of legumes, native to temperate North America and east Asia. They are herbaceous perennials and are known as goldenbanners or false-lupines. Species ''Thermopsis'' comprises the following species: * '' Thermopsis alp ...

''.

Description

''V. turcica'' has a stout

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

giving rise to top growth of upright habit 30–80 cm in height, bearing stems and trifoliate leaves clad in long, soft

hairs Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fin ...

and clustered yellow flowers in a terminal

racemose A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the shoo ...

inflorescence. The ovary is tripartite, each flower giving rise to three twisted pods, each of which, when ripe, is brown on the exterior and yellow within and approximately 25 mm in length.

Taxonomy

The genus is named in honour of Turkish botanist Mecit Vural of

Gazi University Gazi University () is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded in 1926 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk originally as the Gazi Education Institute (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Gazi Eğitim Ens ...

by Uysal and Ertuğrul, ''Vuralia'' being a Latinised form of his surname.https://www.facebook.com/412141405493373/posts/3033914533316034/ Retrieved at 00.03 on 23/12/22.

Affiliation within Fabaceae

The genus ''Vuralia'' is most closely related to the Asian species of the genus ''Thermopsis'' and the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

genera ''

Anagyris ''Anagyris'' (Spanish: ''oro de risco'') is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae. Species ''Anagyris'' comprises the following species: * '' Anagyris foetida'' L. * '' Anagyris latifolia'' Br ...

'' and '' Piptanthus'': less so to the American species of ''Thermopsis'' which are closer to ''

Baptisia ''Baptisia'' (wild indigo, false indigo) is a genus in the legume family, Fabaceae. They are flowering herbaceous perennial plants with pea-like flowers, followed by pods, which are sometimes inflated. They are native to woodland and grassland i ...

'' (the genus ''Thermopsis'' is

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

and merits splitting into separate Old and

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

genera).

Habitat loss

The habitat of ''V. turkica'' has sustained damage due to the desiccation of lakes Akşehir and Eber and the herb itself has been largely eradicated as a weed by farmers in the region. Furthermore, sexual reproduction has been impaired by insect damage to ripening seed before maturity. However, the plant is neither widely consumed by

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

s nor exploited for medicinal / pharmaceutical purposes by humans and is able to increase vegetatively by the spread of the fleshy rhizomes, these factors furnishing some defence against possible extinction.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q30693069 Sophoreae Monotypic Fabaceae genera Endemic flora of Turkey Plants described in 1983