Limonium lobatum

Brullo, Salvatore & Erben, Matthias, 2016, The genus Limonium (Plumbaginaceae) in Greece, Phytotaxa 240 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

2. Limonium lobatum (L. fil.) Chazelles (1790: 36) ( Fig. 2 )

Basionym:― Statice lobata Linnaeus fil. (1781: 187). Type (lectotype designated by Erben 1978: 395):―ORIGIN UNKNOWN, Herb. Linnaeus no. 395.37 (LINN!).

= Statice thouinii Viviani (1802: 34) ≡ Limonium thouinii (Viv.) Kuntze (1891: 396) . Type:—not designated.

= Statice cuneata Smith in Link (1831: 264), pro syn., nom. illeg. (Art. 36.1c).

Description: —Plant annual, partly hairy, forming a sub-shrub, 5–30 cm tall, with several erect or procumbent stems and a robust tap-root. Caudices 0.5–3 cm long, branched, living leaves in rosettes at apices. Leaves fleshy, dark green, flat, 30–95 mm long and 8–24 mm broad, oblanceolate, pinnately lobed, apex round, with a bristle 1–4 mm long, with one central nerve and several pinnate lateral nerves, lanate at nerves and leaf margin or sometimes glabrous, gradually tapering into the petiole. Stems often with 2 undulate wings, 5–25cm long, nearly straight, smooth, branching begins over the middle the stems. Inflorescence triangular to obtrullate in outline. Sterile branches absent. Fertile branches 0.5–8 cm long, straight to slightly curved, directed obliquely upwards, forming branching angles of 45°– 70°, only longer branches divided in the upper half. Spikes short and dense, 3–12 mm

LIMONIUM (PLUMBAGINACEAE)

Phytotaxa 240 (1) © 2016 Magnolia Press • 23 long, straight to slightly curved. Spikelets nearly fan-shaped, 8–10 mm long, composed of 2–3 flowers, densely arranged with 6–8 per cm. Outer bract 2.2–3.0 mm long and 1.8–3.0 mm broad, triangular to triangular-ovate, acute to obtuse, with an awn, 0.3–1.0 mm long; bract in the upper half shaggily hairy; margin narrowly membranous. Middle bract membranous, 3.1–4.0 mm long and 1.5–3.0 mm broad, triangular, acute to obtuse, with an awn, 0.3–1.0 mm long, sparsely shortly hairy. Inner bract 6.5–8.2 mm long and 4.5–5.2 mm broad, obovate to elliptical, rounded to 2-lobed; bract margin more or less broadly membranous; central part fleshy, green, sometimes hairy, oblong, on the upper end with 2 fleshy, clawed, shaggily appendices. Calyx slender, 9.5–12.0 mm long; calyx tube nearly glabrous; calyx lobes very large, ca. 2.5 × 1.9 mm, alternate a broad triangular and a linear, very small triangular lobe; calyx seam plicate, pale blue. Corolla white to yellowish.

Chromosome number: —2n = 12 ( Erben 1978).

Distribution: —Southern and southwestern Mediterranean region. In Greece, this species only occurs on the small island of Aegina (Saronic Gulf) , where it is very rare ( Fig. 93D ).

Habitat: —Ruderal habitats.

Taxonomic remarks: — L. lobatum belongs to Limonium sect. Pteroclados . It is related to L. sinuatum , from which it differs in its annual habit and by having calyces with very large lobes.

Specimens examined: — GREECE. Saronic Islands: Ins. Aegina, 4 May 1969, P. Charitonidou s.n. (Herb. Greuter); Inseln im Saronischen Golf, Aegina, Ruinen des antiken Aegina am Rand der modernen Stadt, auf Ausgrabungsschutt und an Mauer, 10 May 2005, Kalheber 05–460 (Herb. Kalheber) .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Limonium lobatum (L. fil.) Chazelles. A) Habit; B) Spikelet; C) Outer bract; D) Middle bract; E) Inner bract; F) Calyx; G) Calyx lobes. (Drawn from “Aegina, Kalheber 05-460, Herb. Kalheber ”).

FIGURE 93. (Map 8) Geographical distribution of Limonium echiodes (A); L. helenae (B); L. quinnii (C); L. lobatum (D); L. monolithicum (E); L. taenari (F); L. spreitzenhoferi (G).