Safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L. - Bioversity International

12 Safflower. Carthamus tinctorius L.
Knowles 1960). Carthamus riphaeus Font Quer is very restricted in occurrence, having
been found only in a small area in northern Morocco (Ashri and Knowles 1960).
Carthamus nitidus Boiss., while classified by Ashri and Knowles (1960) as having 10
pairs of chromosomes, has subsequently been reclassified as having 12 pairs (Kumar
1989; López-González 1989). Nevertheless, this species is sufficiently isolated from
the other species to constitute a separate section (López-González 1989).
1.6 Carthamus species with 10 pairs of chromosomes
The species having 10 pairs of chromosomes are characterized by a preponderance
of purple, blue and pink flowers and include C. boissieri Halácsy, C. dentatus
Vahl (genome formula A 1 A 1 ), C. glaucus Bieb. and its various subspecies (genome
formulae AA or AA/A 3 A 3 ), C. leucocaulos Sm. (genome formula A 2 A 2 ) and C. tenuis
(Boiss.&Bl.) Bornm. (López-González 1989). The subspecies of C. glaucus together
cover the area east and north of the Mediterranean Sea: subsp. glaucus (I.B.)
Schank, in Transcaucasia, Syria, Turkey and Iran; subsp. anatolicus (Boiss.) Han. in
Israel; subsp. glandulosus Han. in Jordan, and subsp. tenuis (Boiss. & Bl.) Schank in
Israel.
1.7 Carthamus species with 11, 22 and 32 pairs of chromosomes
The only species with 11 pairs of chromosomes is C. divaricatus (Beg. & Vace.) Pamp.,
which has a very restricted range in Libya (Knowles 1988). Flowers may be yellow,
purple or white with yellow pollen. It is self-incompatible but it will cross with
species having 10 pairs of chromosomes and produce partly fertile hybrids. Crosses
with C. tinctorius are possible, but hybrids are sterile.
Carthamus lanatus L., with 22 pairs of chromosomes and a genome formula of
A 1 A 1 B 1 B 1 , occurs naturally in Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Greece and Turkey. Because
its oil content is 16%, and thus suitable for human use (Weiss 1983), it was
introduced to Australia where it became a noxious weed. It is considered a progenitor
of the two species with 2n=64: C. creticus L. (syn. C. baeticus (Boiss. &
Reuter) Nyman with a genome formula of A 1 A 1 B 1 B 1 A 2 A 2 ) and C. turkestanicus M.
Popov, with a genome formula of A 1 A 1 B 1 B 1 AA (Khidir and Knowles 1970). Carthamus
leucocaulos Sibth. & Sm., with 2n=20 chromosomes and a genome formula of
A 2 A 2 , found on the islands of Greece, is considered another progenitor of C. creticus
(Khidir and Knowles 1970), and C. glaucus, with 2n=20 and the genome formula
AA, is considered the other progenitor of C. turkestanicus. Carthamus lanatus is
self-compatible and has yellow or white flowers, with yellow pollen. Carthamus
creticus has spread to the eastern Mediterranean, north Africa and Spain; it is selfpollinated,
has white pollen, and is a vigorous competitor in nature (Khidir and
Knowles 1970). Carthamus turkestanicus is found in west Asia, east to Kashmir and
in Ethiopia; it has 22 pairs of chromosomes in common (homologues) with
C. creticus, also has white pollen, and its similarity in appearance to C. lanatus in
Thrace suggests considerable gene exchange (Khidir and Knowles 1970).