Trachomitum venetum (L.) Woodson

Doumas, Panayiotis, Goula, Katerina & Constantinidis, Theophanis, 2022, Thirty-two new and noteworthy floristic records from north-eastern Greece, Biodiversity Data Journal 10, pp. 81817-81817 : 81817

Trachomitum venetum (L.) Woodson

Trachomitum venetum (L.) Woodson in Ann. Miss. Bot. Gard. 17: 158 (1930)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: P. Doumas; Taxon: scientificName: Trachomitum venetum; family: Apocynaceae; genus: Trachomitum; specificEpithet: venetum; taxonRank: species; Location: continent: Europe; country: Greece; stateProvince: Nomos Xanthis; verbatimLocality: Mandra beach, next to a drainage ditch; verbatimElevation: 0 m; verbatimLatitude: 40°57′; verbatimLongitude: 25°00′; Identification: identifiedBy: P. Doumas, K. Goula & Th. Constantinidis; Event: eventDate: 5 June 2021; habitat: on sandy shore; Record Level: collectionID: 42; institutionCode: ATHU; basisOfRecord: Specimen

Taxon discussion

This is the second record of the taxonomically difficult genus Trachomitum in Greece (Fig. 2 ). The first one comes from the Island of Limnos, in the northern Aegean ( Yannitsaros et al. 2001, Panitsa et al. 2003, Bergmeier et al. 2021) (Fig. 3 ). Having a different opinion than that of Stearn (1978) and the preceded authors, we attribute the plants from Nomos Xanthis and Limnos Island (J. Krause & M. Ristow 265/19, Limnos, Herb. Ristow!) to Tr. venetum ( Tr. venetum subsp. venetum ) instead of T. sarmatiense Woodson ( Tr. venetum subsp. sarmatiense (Woodson) Avetisjan). This is in accordance with Rechinger (1974), who treated the genus in the same way for Flora Iranica, Woodson (1930) and Markgraf (1972). The Greek plants mostly have lanceolate, acute leaves, conspicuous bracts, lanceolate and acute calyx-lobes up to 2 mm and corolla-lobes 1/2 to almost as long as the corolla tube. Α comparison of Greek plants with the type specimen of T. sarmatiense (a.n. 00093153, GH!) showed significant differences in the above-mentioned characters. The latter has ovate to ovate-lanceolate leaves with obtuse apex, inconspicuous bracts, ovate and obtuse calyx-lobes up to 1 mm and corolla-lobes shorter than 1/3 of the corolla tube. Furthermore, T. sarmatiense appears to have a more eastern distribution ( Woodson 1930, Pobedimova 1952, Markgraf 1972, Rechinger 1974, Euro+Med 2006+ [continuously updated]), whereas T. venetum grows in south-east Europe and the eastern Mediterranean area, including Cyprus. As a consequence, Tr. sarmatiense should be excluded from the Greek flora.

Figures

Figure 2. Trachomitum venetum from Nomos Xanthis (photo: P. Doumas).

Figure 3. Distribution map of Trachomitum venetum, Sedum confertiflorum and Saxifraga sibirica in Greece.