the larger islands. It is distributed in most parts of Europe, North Africa, Anatolia and the Caucasus. The species is resistant to atmospheric pollution, capable of capturing atmospheric nitrogen with rootstocks. Alnus glutinosa is a taxon characteristic of the“ 91E0 * priority habitat: Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior”, which has its southern limit of spreading to Greece. Greece is also the southern part of the species distribution in Europe.( K. Koutsovoulou)
March 2018 Linum arboreum L. Linum arboreum is a genuine ornament on the rocks, a very attractive shrub with bright yellow flowers and relatively early spring flowering that will definitely attract your attention. It can reach 1 meter in height although it is usually lower and caespitose. Its leaves are glabrous and thick and its few-flowered compact inflorescences appear from March to May and occasionally from January. It is usually found in rock crevices and rocky slopes with macchie and phrygana vegetation, from sea level up to 900 meters although rarely it can be found up to 1900 meters. It is distributed in Crete, the southeastern Aegean islands( Astypalea, Kasos, Karpathos, Sharia, Rhodes, Symi, Halki) and the Marmaris peninsula on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor.( I. Bazos)
April 2018 Ophrys helenae Renz. Helen’ s Bee Orchid( Ophrys helenae Renz) is the only Ophrys species that has no speculum on its flowers, while it is easily identified by its velvet cherry red lip, that usually has a yellowish boarder. Although the lip color and beauty are leading to the idea that the species name comes from Helen of Sparta of the antiquity, Jany Renz, who first found and described the species from Corfu in 1928, named it after his mother, Helen Renz. Ophrys helenae is a Balkan endemic, with a center of distribution in NW Greece, currently expanding its limits east and southwards. It blooms in April and May, and can be found among shrubs and forest openings, in full sun and / or semi-shaded sites.( M. Charitonidou)
May 2018 Juniperus drupacea Labill. Juniperus drupacea( Syrian juniper) is a mountainous, small or medium-sized tree( 12-20 m), endemic to the eastern Mediterranean area( Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey). Its unique natural populations for Europe are found on the mountains of Peloponnisos: Parnon, Taygetos, Chionovouni, Madara and Ktenias. It is present on limestone substrata at altitudes ranging from 300 to 1,500 m. It forms pure or mixed forests with J. oxycedrus L., Abies cephalonica Loudon or Pinus nigra J. F. Arnold subsp. nigra. J. drupacea is a tree species protect ed by the national legislation( PD 67 / 1981), which is included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species( 2006) and its woodlands constitute a priority habitat type according to the Directive 92 / 43 / EEC.( E. Daskalakou)
June 2018. Paeonia mascula( L.) Mill. subsp. hellenica Tzanoud. Paeonia mascula subsp. hellenica is a robust perennial plant, with stems reaching a height of 60 cm. Its large, impressive, cup-shaped flowers, that reach diameters up to 13 cm constitute a fine lesson for floral morphology, as one can identify macroscopically, all the individual floral parts, such as the numerous stamens with the yellow anthers and the tomentose carpels with the bright-red, circinnate stigmatic area. The flowering period lasts from April to June. It is an endemic subspecies of Greece, appearing in rocky places, forest clearings in fir and sweet chestnut woods, as well as in phrygana in Attica, Andros and Ikaria islands, the mountains of the Eastern Peloponnese and in Evvia island, where it forms large colonies.( G. Poulis)
Katerina Koutsovoulou, Green Fund
Greek Flora New findings
Resurrection of Verbascum auriculatum, a long-disused name in Flora Graeca Sibthorpiana( source: Phytotaxa 361( 2): 233-243, 2018).
Verbascum auriculatum, a name for a species discovered during Sibthorp’ s first expedition in the Eastern Mediterranean, had long been sunk into synonymy of V. mucronatum. Surprisingly, however, the original material of this name was found not to match V. mucronatum but V. propontideum, a very distinct species, remarkably dissimilar to V. mucronatum. V. auriculatum is lectotypified and resurrected since V. propontideum represents a younger synonym. The species is endemic to the S. E. Aegean region, whereas Sibthorp has left no indication of where and when he collected the plant. A hypothesis on the possible locus classicus and date of the original collection is presented.
Aris Zografidis, Department of Biology, University of Patras
Carthamus caeruleus L.( Cardueae, Asteraceae), a new record for Rodos Island, Greece( Source Pastrikos( 2018), Parnassiana Archives 6: 11-13).
Carthamus caeruleus is reported as a new record for the flora of Rodos Island, Greece, based on observations in the field and photographs taken in 2015. The species grows near a dirt road margin close to the Apolakkia dam and its population consists of c. 30 mature plants. This population appears local; further research in the surroundings did not reveal any additional plants.
Contribution to the flora of Tilos Island( Source Cattaneo & Grano( 2018), Parnassiana Archives 6: 41-53).
George Pastrikos
The aim of this work is to make a contribution to the flora of Tilos Island( Dodecanese Islands, Greece). The distribution patterns and endemism of its vascular flora are analyzed and the high number of endemic species has been highlighted. The discovery of Limonium sitiacum Rech. f. on Tilos has expanded the range of this species, including Tilos as the second locality in the phytogeographical region of the Eastern Aegean Islands( EAe). Moreover, ecological evaluations of the new endemic species Seseli halkense Cattaneo et al., a perennial chasmophytic species found only on Chalki and Tilos, are provided in light of current research.
Cristina Cattaneo & Mauro Grano
Petrorhagia laconica( source Trigas & al.( 2018), Willdenowia 48: 137-146).
Limonium sitiacum( C. Cattaneo, M. Grano)
Based on a combination of ordination methods and discriminant analyses of 36 macromorphological characters, five species of Petrorhagia subsect. Saxifragae are recognized in Greece. According to the results, two recently collected populations from SE Peloponnisos represent a new Petrorhagia species, which is described as P. laconica. The new species is related to the widespread P. saxifraga and the Greek endemic P. graminea, but clearly distinct from both species by a combination of morphological characters.
Hypericum icaricum( source Tan & Strid( 2018), in Vladimirov & al., Phytologia Balcanica 24( 1): 167-169).
This newly described Hypericum species shows morphological similarities to H. atomarium and H. cuisinii. It occurs on the islands of Ikaria, Samos and Chios, where it grows in crevices of schistose and siliceous rocks and cliffs, in stream valleys, at low to moderate altitudes up to 1000 m.
Ornithogalum insulare( source Kypriotakis, Antaloudaki & Tzanoudakis( 2018), Botanica Serbica 42( 1): 117-122).
Ornithogalum insulare collected from three offshore islets of Crete is described as a species new to science. The new species is related to O. pyrenaicum and O. creticum. Information regarding its chromosome number, ecology and conservation status is also provided.
Cymbalaria spetae( Πηγή Carnicero Campmany, P.( 2017), PhD Thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona).
A new Cymbalaria species which differs from other East Mediterranean species in its longer calyx lobes, smaller and more numerous seeds per capsule and the proportionally shorter and wider spur. It grows in rock crevices of shady limestone cliffs, from 200-800 m and is a local endemic of Mt Taygetos in the Peloponnese.
Hellenic Botanical Society • University of Patras, Faculty of Biology, Division of Plant Biology, Panepistimiopolis, Rio, Achaia 26504, Greece, pdimopoulos @ upatras. gr, Tel. + 30 2610 996777 • www. hbs. gr
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