摘要 : Astragalus (Fabaceae), as a mega genus, among 57 Angiosperm genera, with high diversity, has vast distribution in the World. However, there is a lack of up-to-date information about species richness, sections, centers of endemism,... 展开 Astragalus (Fabaceae), as a mega genus, among 57 Angiosperm genera, with high diversity, has vast distribution in the World. However, there is a lack of up-to-date information about species richness, sections, centers of endemism, and distribution patterns of the genus Astragalus in the Old-World. In this study, we extracted the geographic data of the Astragalus genus from a 40 years field survey, floras, monographs, and former literature. Using this comprehensive dataset, the endemic and common species in each region of the Old-World were revealed. We identified centers of endemism and hotspots of Astragalus based on three metrics: species richness (SR), weighted endemism (WE) and corrected weighted endemism (CWE). The results showed that the genus of Astragalus has 2748 taxa and about 150 sections in the Old-World. Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan in Southwest Asia are the main centers of diversity and endemism of genus Astragalus in the Old-World. Iran plays as a migratory corridor between countries of the Old-World that has many common species with other countries. The Irano-Anatolian hotspot covered the most areas of the three metrics (SR-WE-CWE), followed by the Caucasus, Mountains of Central Asia, Himalayas, and Mediterranean Basin. These regions are the most critical hotspots with the strongest species diversification, which can be considered areas with a high degree of protection. However, nearly half of the identified hotspot areas of Astragalus (1.7 x 10(6)square km(2)) were not covered by the global biodiversity hotspot map, which can be identified as conservation gaps and could be introduced as new reserves. 收起