A NEW PLANT SPECIES FROM KONYA REGION: THE BEAUTIFUL FRUIT OF THE TROUBLE PANDEMIC PERIOD - LEOPOLDIA OZTASİI

Necmettin Erbakan University Ahmet Keleşoğlu Faculty of Education Biology Department Lecturer Prof. Dr. Haydar Öztaş   and his wife Selçuk University Vocational School of Health Services Child Care and Youth Services Department Head Prof. Dr. Fulya Öztaş made an important invention together. The plant discovered by the Öztaş couple was added to the scientific world with the epithet "oztasii" (Konya Morbaşı).

Selçuk University Vocational School of Health Services Child Care and Youth Services Department Lecturer Prof. Dr. Fulya Öztaş and Necmettin Erbakan University Ahmet Keleşoğlu Faculty of Education Biology Department Lecturer Prof. Dr. Haydar Öztaş photographed the plant they encountered on a hill at an altitude of 1,570 meters in the mountainous regions of Konya between 2021 and 2023. As a result of samples taken from the plant, detailed laboratory studies, herbarium and literature comparisons, it was revealed that it was a new species.

Scientific identification of the plant was made by Prof. from Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University. Dr. İsmail Eker and Assoc. Prof. from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University. Dr. Hüseyin Eroğlu and Assoc. Dr. It was made by Süleyman Mesut Pınar. Prof. Dr. Fulya Öztaş and Prof. Dr. The epithet "oztasii" was given as the species name in memory of Haydar Öztaş. The plant was named "Konya Morbaşı" in Turkish.

The scientific study about the plant was published in Phytotaxa, the journal of plant systematics.