It took a couple months to get here but was well worth the wait. I’ll post some excerpts.
7 Likes
Looking forward to your reporting on this 
1 Like
Flora Iranica was compiled by Austrian botanist K.H. Rechinger from 1963 until his death in 1998, then completed by committee in 2005. It contains 181 fascicles (~chapters), each devoted to a plant family. Individual chapters are available from NHBS.
Structurally, the work is an annotated bibliography. Entries are in Latin. Annotations are in Latin, English, or German – depending on entry. Most fascicles contain plant images and/or illustrations.
The fascicle I’m presenting here is for Moraceae. The primary author is the renown Polish botanist K. Browicz. There are 15 pages of text plus 8 figures. Here is the first page:
3 Likes
Here’s K. Browicz’ description of the family Moraceae, translated from Latin by Google:
Trees and shrubs, monoecious or dioecious, with milky latex. Leaves alternate, sometimes opposite, deciduous or evergreen, simple, entire or sometimes serrated or lobed; veins pinnate or palmate. Stipules 2, lateral or above the bud forming a cap, often deciduous. Flowers minute, very reduced, actinomorphic, unisexual, capitate or pseudospicate or arranged on the inner face of the concave receptacle. Perianth segments 4, free or connate, reduced or lacking. Male flowers with 4 stamens (or reduced to 1-2), opposite perianth segments; distinct filaments. Female flowers on the superior or inferior ovary, usually unilocular; styles usually 2, filiform. Fruit small, achaenium or drupe. Infructescence syncarpe or syconium. Seeds usually endowed with endosperm.
Next we’ll have a look at each Genus present in greater Iran.
1 Like
The first Genus is Morus. K. Browicz begins with a few references, then gives the following general description:
Deciduous trees and shrubs. Gems scales 3-6. Leaves alternate, simple, serrate or toothed, undivided or lobed, with 3-5 nerves arising from the base. Stipules membranous, lateral, small, soon deciduous. Flowers 4-merous, monoecious or dioecious, both sexes in pedunculate axillary panicles. Perianth 4-parted. Stamens 4. Ovary ovoid or subglobose, bilocular, with one abortive sac. 2-part style. Ovule solitary, pendulous. Compressed fruits and drupes enclosed in an expanded succulent perianth, aggregated in an ovoid or cylindrical succulent syncarp. Seeds with fleshy endosperm.
Next we’ll look at 3 Morus species in the study area.
2 Likes
- Morus nigra
Tree usually not taller than 10 m, forming a dense crown often wider than the height of the tree. Trunk short, scabrous. Shoots thick, strong, juveniles reddish-brown, densely hairy. Leaves about equal in length, 6-12(-20) cm long, broadly ovate, usually undivided or sometimes (in luxuriant specimens) 2-3-lobed, coarsely serrate, acute or shortly acuminate at the apex, deeply cordate at the base, scabrous above, pubescent beneath, especially along the main veins, subcoriaceous. Petiole to 3(-4) cm long, thick, hairy. Male stamens 15-25 mm long, about twice as long as female stamens, supported by both pubescent peduncles. Style hairy. Syncarp oblong-ovate, to 25 mm long, black, shiny, very succulent, sweet.
- M. alba
Tree 10-15(-20) m tall, dense, compact rounded crown, up to 15 m in diameter. Trunk short, bark rough and fissured. Juvenile shoots first pubescent or glabrous. Leaves 5-15 cm, in some forms up to 20-25 cm long, often longer in width, ovate to broadly ovate, apex acute or shortly acuminate, base rounded or truncate or ± cordate, coarsely toothed, often, especially in younger individuals not yet fruiting, variously 3-5(-7)-lobed, above usually smooth and shiny, beneath along the median rib and main veins sparsely hairy, the axils of the veins marked with bundles of hairs. Petiole hairy, 1-5 cm long. Stipules lanceolate, soon deciduous. Male flowers 10-15 mm long, supported by short tomentose peduncles. Female anthers smaller, 5-10 mm long. Styles glabrous. Syncarp 10-25 mm long, usually white but sometimes pinkish-purple or almost black, succulent, sweet and quite tasteless. Drupes pale brown, c. 2 mm long.
Commonly planted in many forms in Asia, Europe, N. Africa, and America. Planted in gardens and along streets and roads. The leaves are utilized as food for silkworms. Fruits are eaten in fresh and dried states.
- M. serrata
Similar to the preceding species, but with trilobed leaves, finely doubly serrated, with a woolly-tomentose syncarpic peduncle.
2 Likes
Genus Maclura.
Deciduous, lactiferous tree. Branches with axillary spines. Leaves alternate, thinly petiolate, simple, entire, pinnate-nerved, involute vernation. Stipules minute, membranous, deciduous. Flowers dioecious; male pedicellate, stamens 4, arranged in loose globose racemes on long peduncles; female flowers sessile, ovary sessile, style filiform undivided, arranged in a dense globose capitula on long peduncle. Perianth 4-lobed. Achenes oblong, composed in a large globose, mamillato-corticatum syncarp. Seeds without endosperm.
Maclura pomifera.
(sole Maclura species in study region)
Tree to 15-20 m tall. Trunk with deeply fissured, dark orange-brown bark. Hard, yellow wood. Strong spines, 10-25 mm long. Juvenile shoots pubescent, soon glabrous, olive-green. Leaves 5-12(-16) cm long, about twice as long at the base, ovate to lanceolate-oblong, apex ± acuminate, base cuneate to subcordate, entire, above dark green, glabrous and shiny, paler beneath and juveniles especially pubescent along the veins and median rib. Petiole 2-5 cm long. Green flowers inconspicuous, minute. Male inflorescence raceme subglobose, 25-35 mm long, supported by a peduncle equal to or longer than the raceme; racemes globose. Female inflorescence solitary, capitate, densely globose, c. 20 mm in diameter, subsessile or shortly pedunculated. Syncarp subglobose, similar to orange, 10-15 cm in diameter, virescent-yellow. Seed about 10 mm long.