Endemic of Kazakhstan Allium lehmannianum Merckl. Ex Bunge and Its Position Within the Genus Allium

The paper presents data on the phylogeny, anatomy of vegetative organs, phytocenosis composition, and ploidy of two populations of endemic <i>Allium lehmannianum</i> Merckl. ex-Bunge. in the flora of northeastern Betpakdala. Some discrepancies in nomenclature and sectional affiliation are discussed and corrected. <i>Allium lehmannianum</i> belongs to the section <i>Multicaulea</i> F. O. Khass. and & Yenglal. subgenus <i>Allium</i>, the main range covering the eastern Old Mediterranean region. The ploidy of <i>Allium lehmannianum</i> was studied for the first time using flow cytometry techniques. The sequencing of nrITS was used to construct a phylogenetic tree, including sequences from the NCBI database. The phylogenetic tree of <i>A. lehmannianum</i> was compiled by taking into account previously published data. During the fieldwork in the northeastern part of Betpakdala, the species was found to grow in a rubbly, stony, weakly undulating plain in two different communities. In this work, we applied molecular genetic, cytometric, and anatomical studies on the collected samples of two populations from the northeastern part of the Betpakdala desert to determine the taxonomic composition of a relict and endemic species of Kazakhstan.