Cousinia knorringiae Bornm., Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 34(2): 201. 1917 (Bornmüller 1917).

Type: Kyrgyzstan. “Fergana Valley, 9 versts NE of meteorological station Schatak-Tepe, Ungor-Tepa Mts.”, 06.06.1912, O. von Knorring 88 (lectotype B barcode B100093383!, designated by Sennikov (2010); two isolectotypes LE!). Fig. 1.

Figure 1.  

Lectotype specimen of Cousinia knorringiae (B barcode B100093383).

Stems 40-50 cm high, very finely tomentose, branched from the base and above. Leaves coriaceous, tomentose slightly above and abundantly below, their nerves ending with spines up to 1 cm long; basal leaves up to 25 cm long, ca. 6 cm wide, lyrate with lanceolate-ovate upper lobe and up to 5 pairs of oblong-ovate lateral lobes; lower cauline leaves lyrate, withering at anthesis; middle cauline leaves 3.5-4.5 cm wide, oblong-ovate or obovate, incised at the lower half, round and amplexicaul at the base, with the auricles adnate to 0.2-0.5 cm, not decurrent; upper cauline ovate, amplexicaul with free auricles, long-spiny at the apex; uppermost not reduced. Capitula 1.5-2 cm broad (without appendages), its green part ca. 2 cm high. Phyllaries 25-35, dark-green, glabrous, hard-coriaceous, narrowly attenuated; outer phyllaries spreading horizontally or slightly downwards, some with 1-3 pairs of spines at the base, their reflexed part 6-12 mm long, 2 mm broad at the base, straight, narrowly triangular; middle phyllaries spreading obliquely upwards, their reflexed part 15-23 mm long, 5-7 mm wide at the base, folded and indistinctly contracted at the base, narrowly triangular, prominently concave; inner phyllaries appressed; innermost phyllaries with purple glabrous deltoid-lanceolate appendages 15-20 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, overtopping the green part of the involucre by 5-10 mm. Receptacular bristles scabrid. Corolla light-purple, prominently overtopping the involucre. Anthers stramineous, long and very narrowly attenuated at the apex. Achenes 4-4.5 mm long. Fig. 2.

Figure 2.  

Line drawing of Cousinia knorringiae. A. Upper part of flowering stem; B. Seed; C. Rootstock with basal leaves; D. Phyllaries: a. outer phyllary (lateral view), b. middle phyllary (lateral and adaxial views), c. inner phyllary; E. Lower cauline leaf; F. Middle cauline leaves: a. oblong-lanceolate, b. oblong-ovate. Scale bars: A, C, E and F = 2 cm; B = 1 mm; D = 1 cm. Drawing: M. Usmonov.

Flowering period: May to June.

Distribution: Central Asia. Western Tian-Shan: Chatkal Mountain Range, Bozbu-Too Mts., At-Oinok Mts.; within the Kara-Suu River Basin. Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan.

Ecology: Gravelly slopes, rock crevices, open or partly shaded places, at elevations of 950-1500 m above sea level (optimal elevations between 1200 and 1400 m).

The type locality of Cousinia knorringiae is Ungur-Tepa Mt., which is situated on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan; the highest part and the southern foothills of the mountain belong to Uzbekistan, whereas its eastern, northern and western foothills belong to Kyrgyzstan. The type locality has not been precisely localised in earlier publications and its position did not appear on the otherwise accurate distribution map in Sennikov (2010). Due to the complicated position and shape of country borders in Central Asia, it was not fully certain from the territory of which country (Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan) the species was actually described.

According to the expedition route map, published by von Knorring (1915), she visited the territory of Ungur-Tepa Mt. while travelling from Turpak-Bel Pass to Zarkent Village and back. For the outward journey, Knorring went along the road around the northern side of the mountain and, on the way back, she crossed the mountain through its highest part (Fig. 3). While crossing the mountain, she passed the present-day territory of Uzbekistan only at the highest elevations, which are unsuitable for the species; the maximum height of Ungur-Tepa Mt. is 1956 m, whereas suitable habitats of the species are limited by the elevation of 1500 m (Sennikov 2010). From this fact, we safely conclude that Knorring collected the species on the foothills of Ungur-Tepa Mt., which she sampled in the territory of present-day Kyrgyzstan only and the species was, therefore, described from Kyrgyzstan.

Figure 3.  

Distribution map of Cousinia knorringiae. Red line in the lower right part: route of the expedition of O. von Knorring and S. Neustruev across Ungur-Tepa Mt. in 1912.

The original label of Knorring refers to meteorological station "Shatak-tebe", or "Schatak-tebe" in contemporary German spelling, which historically existed at the very border with Uzbekistan (Cherkasov et al. 1987), on a small hill by the same name; the hill was described as composed of gravel and pebble overlaid with loesses (Neustruev and Nikitin 1926). This hill is apparently the smallest and farthest south-western outpost of Bozbu-Too Mts., adjacent to Ungur-Tepa Mt., which is situated in Kyrgyzstan at 41.394359°N, 71.625116°E and whose elevation is between 1250 and 1275 m. The hill is nameless on current maps. The exact position of this historical locality may be important in databasing historical records of plants and animals collected by the expedition of O. von Knorring and S. Neustruev in 1912, which brought a number of species new to science, described on the basis of their collections.

According to the published data (Tscherneva 1993, Sennikov 2010, Lazkov and Sultanova 2014, Lazkov and Umralina 2015, Tojibaev et al. 2020), Cousinia knorringiae was considered endemic to Kyrgyzstan and our country record from Uzbekistan is, therefore, a novelty. The species (Fig. 4, Fig. 5) was discovered and collected by Tojibaev on the southern foothills of Ungur-Tepa Mt., north of Paromon Village, in Yangi-Kurgan District, Namangan Region, Uzbekistan (reference to GBIF).

Figure 4.  

Cousinia knorringiae in Uzbekistan. A. Habit.; B. Immature capitula with upper cauline leaves; C. Middle cauline leaf; D. Seeds; E. Immature capitulum with red colouration. Photo: K. Tojibaev, except (d): M. Usmonov.

Figure 5.  

Representative specimen of Cousinia knorringiae from Uzbekistan (TASH).

The species is endemic to the East Fergana botanical hotspot, the area known for a number of narrowly restricted plant species (Lazkov et al. 2002). This area includes the south-eastern parts of the Chatkal Mountain Range, Bozbu-Too Mts., At-Oinok Mts., Isfan-Jailoo Mts., Kyrbuu-Too Mts. and Babash-Ata Mts.; recent research continues adding new endemic plants described from this area (e.g. Sennikov and Lazkov 2013). The area lies almost entirely within Kyrgyzstan, with small outliers of mountain ranges shared with Uzbekistan. This share, although territorially minor, affects a number of narrowly distributed plant species which were previously considered endemics of Kyrgyzstan and, therefore, viewed as objects of national conservation concern (e.g. Lazkov and Sennikov 2017b). Recent knowledge suggests that transborder conservation efforts may be desirable in certain territories of the East Fergana botanical hotspot and Ungur-Tepa Mt. could be one of such territories, especially its southern extension with lower elevations (max. 1450 m) which is adjacent to Paromon Village. The southern extension of Ungur-Tepa Mt. harbours narrowly distributed plant species (e.g. Allium dodecadontum Vved., Cousinia knorringiae Bornm.) which cannot be found elsewhere in Uzbekistan and may, therefore, be proposed for legal protection at the national level with subsequent inclusion in transborder conservation networks.