Campanula perpusilla A. DC., Prodr.

Type:— Persia [Iran]: P. M. R. Aucher-Eloy, 1861, G!.

Description:— Plants annual, small, fragile, cespitosa and chasmophyte. Stems thin, branched (simple), ascending, flexuous, fragile, (0) 0.3–2.5 cm long, glabrous or glabrescent, sparsely with short villous hairs up to 1 mm long. Leaves reniform, 0.3–1.5(2) cm in diam., margin dentate, to repand, subentire or entire, cordate at base, rounded, obtuse, or minutely retuse at apex, glabrous, glabrescent, with very sparsely short hairs on both surfaces; petioles thin, up to 7 cm long, glabrous, glabrescent, or sparsely with short hairs. Inflorescence small, corymb, up to 5 cm long, leafy. Pedicel thin, filiform, 1–5 cm long, ascending to erect, purple or purple-pale green, glabrous, glabrescent, or sparsely with short hairs. Calyx lobes linear, lanceolate-linear, lanceolate and subulate, 2–2.5 × 0.2–0.3 mm, ascending, narrowly acute at apex, glabrous, rarely with few hairs on margins; appendage absent. Corolla tube narrowly cylindrical-campanulate, white, dark blue midribs and lobes, 4–8 × 2–4 mm, glabrous, divided to 1/6 tube; corolla lobes 0.2–1 × 0.2–0.5 mm, widely ovate, acute or acute-obtuse; appendage absent. Style included in the corolla tube, c. 5 mm long, white, glabrous, straight. Stigmas 3, fused, usually not distinct, straight, c. 2 mm long. Stamens c. 2.5 mm long; filament white, c. 1.5 mm long, with oblong base, base of filament c. 1.5 × 0.5 mm, glabrous; anthers bright yellow, 0.9–1 mm long; pollen grains bright yellow. Ovary glabrous, shiny green. Capsule narrowly ellipticovate, c. 3 mm long, glabrous, opening by 3 basal pores. Seeds numerous, narrowly ellipsoid to narrowly oblong, 0.5–0.6 × 0.2–0.3 mm, always? blue, shiny; surface ornamentation striate.

Campanula escalerae Rech.f. & Schiman-Czeika,Fl. Iranica 13: 22(1965). syn. nov.

Holotype:—Persia [Iran]: Bakht. [Khuzestan province]: Gatvand [Gotvand], Rio Karun [Karun River], 400 m, Martínez de la Escalera, 5 June 1899 (MA 121407!).

One of the lesser-known bellflowersis Campanula escalerae Rech.f. & Schiman-Czeika. The type of species was collected by Don Manuel Martínez de la Escalera during a botanical expedition in western Iran in 1899 and described by Pau (Pau &Vicioso 1918). It is completely neglected both in the relevant floristic literature and special taxonomic works (Mozaffarian 2017; Dinarvand & Jamzad 2020). This species is separated from C. persepolitana and C. perpusilla by only minor morphological differences in the style shorter than corolla tube (vs equal), and the cylindrical corolla (vs campanulate) (Rechinger & Schimann-Czeika 1965, Aghabeigi 2010). As seen above, there are strong variations of these features within the same plant in both species, which suggests a phenotype plasticity of these traits in these taxa. Therefore, they cannot be suitable diagnostic features to separate the species in question. Despite the poor condition of the holotype specimen, due to the presence of reniform leaves, white corolla with blue lobes, long pedicels and petioles, the styles shorter than or equal to tube, being annual and fragile plant, and recent our collections from the type locality, there is no doubt that it belongs to C. perpusilla.