Taraxacum cylleneum Fürnkranz (1969: 150)

Kirschner, Jan, Štěpánek, Jan, Doostmohammadi, Moslem & Zeisek, Vojtěch, 2021, Taraxacum assemanii represents a new section: A revision of the misinterpreted Taraxacum primigenium, and the elucidation of the enigmatic Taraxacum section Primigenia (Compositae, Crepidinae), Phytotaxa 520 (2), pp. 117-136 : 130-131

3. Taraxacum cylleneum Fürnkranz (1969: 150) .

Type:—[ GREECE]. In montis Kyllenes (Ziria hod.) Achaiae regione superiori, 5000–7122 ft., 25 Jun 1887, [ T.] Heldreich, as Crepis columnae ( WU, no. det. 21290, lectotype, designated here; isolectotype: WU, no. det. 9063) .

Note:— Fürnkranz (1969: 151) unequivocally designated the holotype: [ GREECE]. Griechenland, Peloponnes, Prov. Korinth, Kyllene Oros (Ziria), Doline and der Südwestseite des Nordgipfels (= Hauptgipfel) in etwa 2250 m s.m., 11 Jul 1966, G. Fürnkranz & D. Fürnkranz ( WU). However, the curator of WU failed to locate the holotype material of T. cylleneum , and the search carried out in SZU, a herbarium collection with the main material collected by D. Fürnkranz, did not find it, either. In addition to the plants collected by Fürnkranz, only a single specimen belonging to the original material of this name was identified (the plants collected by Heldreich were cited by Fürnkranz 1969: 149). The original material thus consisted of three sources, the holotype and isotype plants, now not extant, the specimen collected by Heldreich (and duplicates) and photographs of T. cylleneum in Fürnkranz (1969: 152, fig. 1, 153, fig. 2). Of these elements, the only one available and eligible as LT is the specimen collected by T. Heldreich.

Plants small, delicate, to 6–8 (–9) cm tall. Roots relatively thin, long, pliable, often branched, adapted to the wet mobile fine scree. Petiole pale green, ± glabrous, unwinged (dilated at the very base), rarely narrowly winged; plant base ± without tunic, usually with dense whitish hairs. Leaves often appressed to ground to suberect, mid-green, adaxially ± glabrous, subglabrous to sparsely arachnoid abaxially, mid-vein light green, blade very variable in shape, usually oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, most often 3–6 × 0.7–1.3 cm, usually pinnatilobed to pinnatisect, with 3–5 irregular pairs of short, patent to recurved, linear-triangular to narrowly triangular or deltoid-triangular, acuminate to acute, ± entire lateral segments; interlobes variable, broad or narrow, then withsparse short teeth, sometimes narrowly bordered purple-brown; terminal segment usually triangular-sagittate, often acuminate, in the outermost leaves sometimes obtuse. Scapes thin, erect or ascending, green to brownish green, arachnoid shorter than, or equalling leaves. Capitulum yellow, ca. 1 (–1.8) cm wide, with relatively few (12–20) florets. Involucre deep green, narrowly cylindrical to subobconical and 2–3 mm wide at base. Outer phyllaries not numerous, usually 5–8, of ± unequal length, ± appressed to loosely so, later sometimes to erect-arcuate, linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, usually 2.5–4 × 0.9–1.2 mm, with dirty green surface, often with a dark middle line, with an inconspicuous, membranous or greenishmembranous border 0.1 (–0.2) mm, apex darker, ± flat to callose; inner phyllaries usually 7–8 mm long, dark and ± flat at apex. Outer ligules ± flat, striped dirty purplish outside, inner ligule teeth dirty yellow. Anthers polliniferous, pollen grains regular in size, stigmas grey to deep grey, initially grey-yellow. Achenes (often a few sterile ones present in each fruiting head) light greyish stramineous-brown, 3.8–4.7 × 0.8–0.9 mm, body regularly but sparsely spinulose in upper 1/3, mainly on ridges, and/or sparsely tuberculate, spinules erect to erect-patent, usually ± thin, acute, usually 0.1 (–0.15) mm long, body very gradually narrowing into a conical part above the spinulosity („cone“), ca. 0.5–0.7 mm long; beak distinct from the cone, slightly thickened, 0.9–1.5 (–2.3) × ca. 0.2 mm; pappus brightly reddish yellow, brownish or rusty-brownish, 3.9–4.2 mm long. – 2n = 16 ( Fürnkranz 1969: 151), plants sexual, outcrossing. – Fig. 7 , 8 .

Relationships:— Fürnkranz (1969) made a great effort to characterize his new species from various viewpoints. He cultivated some plants from the type gathering, and ascertained sexuality and outcrossing. He also described the leaf shape variation, undergroud organs, characterized the ecology of this rare species (calcareous, fine wet scree on northern slopes). A detailed comparison with the true T. glaciale of Italy showed that these two species share a diploid chromosome number (2n = 16) and sexuality. An unexpected feature of the karyotype of T. cylleneum is a higher proportion of centromeres outside the metacentric or submetacentric positions, often considered as a derived attribute. As given above, morphologically, and on the basis of the achene morphology in particular, T. cylleneum seems to be quite separate from T. assemanii , but much closer to T. primigenium . The overall comparison, including the results of our molecular study ( Fig. 1 ), suggests links to T. sect. Piesis, and there is a hypothesis that T. cylleneum is a derivative of proto- Piesis forms, and therefore might represent a sister taxon of the modern T. sect. Piesis. From the viewpoint of practicality, mainly because of the achene morphology and the nrDNA results, we suggest to include T. cylleneum in T. sect. Piesis.

Distribution and habitat:—We examined a number of specimens of T. cylleneum , most of them from Oros Kyllini. There are two new localities of T. cylleneum , both from the northern Peloponnese. The Chelmos Mts. site was an expectable range extension, because Mt. Chelmos shares a substantial part of the local endemism with Oros Kyllini ( Dimopoulos & Georgiadis 1992). The other locality, in the Erymanthos Mts., is close to the Chelmos Mts. The habitat of T. cylleneum is characterized by a northern slope fine scree with a permanent seepage at elevations of (1700–) 1900–2375 m. The wet fine scree is an exceptional habitat in otherwise quite dry mountains, a situation similar to that at the type locality of T. primigenium . The most conspicuous species growing together with T. cylleneum is Crepis aurea subsp. glabrescens (Caruel) Arcang. [syn.: Crepis columnae (Ten.) Froel. ].

Specimens examined:— GREECE. Griechische Gebirge (Hochland v. Arkadien), Kyllini (Siria), Dolinenfurche südl. des Hauptgipfels, Kalk, 2200 m, 11 Jul 1966, H. Metlesics 15487 (LI, no. det. 11414, locus classicus on the date of the holotype collection). – Peloponnes (Nom. Korinthia), Killini (Kyllene), N- und NE-Seite des Gipfelmassivs (K 2376), 1940–2376 m, E. Hörandl, F. Hadaček sen. & F. Hadaček jun. 7606 (W, no. det. 20847). – Mons Ziria, in glareosis alpinis ad cacumen, calcar., 2370 m, 8 Aug 1906, R. Maire & M. Petitmengin, Mission botanique en Orient 1906, no. 541 (WU, no. det. 21997). – In montis Kyllenes (Ziria hod.) Achaiae regione superiori, 5000–7122 ft., 25 Jun 1887, Heldreich (WU, no. det. 9063, 21290). – Peloponesos, Oros Killini, Gkoura, Hag. Nicolaos, wet scree, ca. N below the main summit, 2200 m, 37°55. 718’ N, 22°23.272’ E, 6 Aug 1997, J. Kirschner, J. Štěpánek et al., cult. as JK 4320 (PRA, no. det. 33684 and duplicates); B. Trávníček et al., cult. as JK 4342 (PRA, no. det. 33675 and duplicates). – Peloponnisos, distr. Korinthia, Goura village, Oros Kyllini, SW slope below the summit, ca. 2200 m, 37°56–57’ N, 22°24’ E, 6 Aug 1997, J. Štěpánek et al. (PRA, no. det. 33742); cultivated as JŠ 6470 (PRA, no. det. 33744); cultivated as JŠ 6310 (PRA, no. det. 33740); cultivated as JŠ 9347 (PRA, no. det. 33734); cultivated as JŠ 6301 (PRA, no. det. 33736). – Erymanthos, NW. of Neraida, ca. 1700 m, 7 Aug 1986, J. Röthlisberger [as T. glaciale ] (G, no. det. 31367). – Chelmos, northern side of Ypsili Koryfi, ca. 2200 m, 8 Aug 1986, J. Röthlisberger [as T. glaciale ] (G, no. det. 31365).

Note:— Richards (1991) added a few specimens from Pindhos, N. Greece, to the distribution range of T. cylleneum but there is a plausible possibility that they belong to T. (Piesis) pindicum Kirschner & Štěpánek (1999: 409) , an assumption supported by the fact that at least one of the T. cylleneum localities cited by Richards (loc. cit.; Katara Pass) belongs to T. pindicum . Further specimens of T. pindicum from Pindhos, later (in 1994) identified as T. cylleneum by A. J. Richards: Ioannina, Konitsa, Fourka Pass and its vicinity (40° 11’ N, 20° 55’ E), 1500 m, 28 Aug 1986, Th. Raus & H. Kraft 11629 (B, no. det. 30235). – Ioannina, Metsovon, Katara Pass (40° 11’ N, 20° 55’ E), 1700 m, 17 Sep 1992, Th. Raus & C. Schiers 18179 (B, no. det. 30237).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Neighbour-Net constructed from uncorrected P-distances in SplitsTree based on nrDNA ITS sequences of sexuals of 30 Taraxacum sections and separate sexual species. The names of selected taxa treated in the present paper are marked. The presentation is simplified; details of the analysis are available on request. Modified from Kirschner et al. (2021).

FIGURE 7. Taraxacum cylleneum. All from Oros Kyllini (PRA, JŠ 7727). A, scale bar = 1 mm. B, scale bar = 0.3 mm. C, scale bar = 50 μm.

FIGURE 8. Taraxacum cylleneum. A, achenes. B, details of involucre (A, PRA, no. det. 33744; B, PRA, no. det. 33684). Scale bars: A, 1 mm; B, 2 mm.