Cytisus jankae Velen. in Abh. Koenigl . Boehm . Ges. Wiss. 1889: 31 (1890)

Sennikov, Alexander N. & Tikhomirov, Valery N., 2024, Atlas Florae Europaeae notes, 35. Further critical notes on Cytisus sect. Tubocytisus (Fabaceae) in Europe, PhytoKeys 238, pp. 199-230 : 199

4. Cytisus jankae Velen. in Abh. Koenigl. Boehm. Ges. Wiss. 1889: 31 (1890)

- Chamaecytisus jankae (Velen.) Rothm. in Feddes Repert. 53: 144 (1944) - Chamaecytisus heuffelii subsp. jankae (Velen.) Niketić in Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Belgrade 14: 83 (2021).

= Cytisus austriacus var. pindicola Degen in Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., nov. ser. 6: 152 (1899), “pindicolus”, syn. nov. - Cytisus pindicola (Degen) Halácsy, Consp. Fl. Graec. 1(2): 338 (1901). Described from a few localities in north-western Greece (syntypes K 000829489, PRC 454944, 454945, WU-Halácsy 0072806).

Type.

Bulgaria. Razgrad Region: "In colle Golem Jug prope Razgrad ", 07.1885, J. Velenovský (lectotype PRC 451243, single plant above the label, designated here) . Fig. 6 .

Distribution.

Europe: Balkan Peninsula (Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia) ( Diklić 1972; Kuzmanov 1976; Micevski 2001; Assyov and Petrova 2012; Barina et al. 2018; Niketić 2021). Fig. 7 .

Notes on taxonomy.

Cristofolini (1991) placed C. jankae next to C. austriacus , thus indicating their affinity. Both species share capitate inflorescences, lanceolate leaves and rather appressed pubescence on all green parts, but C. jankae differs from C. austriacus s.str. by its constantly small size and prostrate habit. Its recent subordination to C. heuffelii ( Niketić 2021), which differs in its calyx being 7-8 mm long (vs. 10-13 mm long in C. jankae ), is hardly justified.

According to their original material, C. pindicola belongs to the synonymy of C. jankae as typified here. The synonymisation of C. pindicola with C. frivaldszkyanus proposed by Barina et al. (2018) is not supported by their diagnostic characters (Table 1 ).

Notes on nomenclature.

The original material of Cytisus jankae Velen., mounted as a single specimen (PRC 451243), is highly heterogeneous and consists of six fragments of small plants with stems ascending from woody caudices, with capitate inflorescences and narrow leaves, which are referable to three species. In spite of its apparent heterogeneity, this entire specimen has been recently designated as a lectotype of the species name ( Niketić 2021).

Two linear-leaved fragments (top centre, bottom left) on this specimen belong to C. absinthioides Janka, which is another species of the Balkans. This species is sometimes ( Cristofolini 1991; Govaerts et al. 2021) merged with C. eriocarpus Boiss. (syn. C. smyrnaeus Boiss.), which is characterised by its leaflets being broadly obovate to elliptic rather than narrowly lanceolate and is totally different in its habit and long spreading pubescence. Cytisus absinthioides is characterised by typically upright, strongly branched stems, regular presence of abbreviated sterile shoots in the leaf axils, small flowers (with calyces 7-8 mm long), rather short subpatent pubescence on the stems and dense appressed pubescence of silvery appearance on the leaflets.

Two plants on the left and right sides are characterised by decumbent to ascending stems, narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate leaflets and subpatent pubescence on stems and calyces, with less developed sterile shoots in leaf axils. These plants correspond to C. pygmaeus Willd., occurring in the Balkans and Turkey.

The plant mounted above the label is similar to C. pygmaeus , but differs from the latter in a densely appressed pubescence, the feature corresponding to the original description of C. jankae which reads "foliolis linearibus vel lineari-spathulatis ... calycis adpresse sericei ..." ( Velenovský 1890). The small fragment alongside the label probably belongs to the same species. As this plant is in good agreement with the protologue, we designate it as a lectotype of C. jankae .

Other low-growing and small-leaved variants presumably belonging to the same group are C. pseudopygmeus Davidov and C. georgievii Davidov, described from the Pontic part of Bulgaria ( Davidoff 1902) and synonymised with C. jankae by Kuzmanov (1976). We refrain from any assessment of these species names because we were not able to examine any original material.

Cytisus pindicola (Degen) Halácsy agrees with the type of C. jankae , but slightly differs from the latter in slightly shorter hairs on stems (0.7-1 mm long vs. 1-2 mm long in C. jankae ) and leaves (0.5-0.8 mm long vs. 0.8-1.5 mm long in C. jankae ) and in shorter calyces (8-10 mm long vs. 10-13 mm long in C. jankae ). Cytisus pindicola was previously placed in a subspecies of C. austriacus ( Cristofolini 1991, as C. austriacus subsp. microphyllus ), but differs from the latter in shorter leaves and a different habit.

The original material of Cytisus austriacus var. pindicola Degen ( Baldacci 1899) consists of four gatherings which were distributed under a single number, as Baldacci 110. K.I. Christensen intended to designate a lectotype at W, but the only specimen in that collection is a mixture of four indistinguishable gatherings ( Reich et al. 2021). Lectotypification is advisable with Degen’s material at BP.

Figures

Figure 6. Lectotype of Cytisus jankae Velen. (plant above the label).

Figure 7. Distribution of Cytisus jankae Velen.