Gagea sect. Platyspermum Boiss. sensu Levichev

This is a small section comprising about 26 species (Peterson et al. 2008). Species previously placed by Pascher (1904, 1907) and subsequently by Stroh (1937) and Uphof (1958 –1960) in G. sect. Platyspermum sensu lato were placed by Levichev (2006) and Peterson et al. (2008) in six sections: Gagea sections Platyspermum Boiss., Stipitatae (Pascher) Davlianidze, Bulbiferae Levichev, Graminifoliae Levichev, Incrustatae Levichev and Dschungaricae Levichev (Zarrei et al. 2009, Peterson et al. 2008). Analyses of nrITS and plastid sequences support neither Pascher’s nor Levichev's concept of G. sect. Platyspermum sensu lato (Zarrei et al. 2009). In the analyses of both combined datasets and separate nrITS and plastid sequences, G. sections Platyspermum sensu Levichev, Graminifoliae and Incrustatae altogether comprise one highly supported clade (clade C; Figures 1–4 of Zarrei et al. 2009). Clade C corresponds to clade A in the analyses of psbA-trnH intergenic spacer, trnL-trnF intergenic spacer and nrITS sequences conducted by Peterson et al. (2008). Clade C has type I pedicel anatomy and type III basal leaf anatomy, with the exception of G. vegeta, which has type III pedicel anatomy and type II leaf anatomy. All four pollen types recognized by Zarrei & Zarre (2005) occur in clade C. The constituent species of clade C were not resolved in the trees obtained from the analyses of malate synthase (Zarrei et al. 2010a) or ncpGS sequence data (Zarrei et al., unpubl. data).