Orobanche alba subsp. alba

Uhlich, Holger & Rätzel, Stefan, 2015, A contribution to the taxonomy and phytogeography of Orobanche alba Steph. ex Willd. (Orobanchaceae), Phytotaxa 222 (1), pp. 1-16 : 7

7. O. alba subsp. alba “var.” bidentata Beck:

Like in many other Orobanche s.str. —species that usually have undivided calyx segments, also in O. alba forms with bidentate sepals occasionally occur. Actually, divided and undivided calyx lobes can be often observed even in the same inflorescence. Since divided calyx lobes do not correlate with any other character, it has no taxonomical value. Consequently, we do not recognize O. alba var. bidentata Beck (1890: 211) as an independent taxon.

Acknowledgements: — We thank: Michael Pettemerides (Nicosia, Cyprus), Ralf Hand (Berlin, Germany) and Heinz Kalheber (Runkel, Germany) for providing herbarium specimen, images and/or data ; Dr. L. Gautier, Head Curator — Phanerogams of the herbarium Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève ( G) for sending us scans of the syntypes of Orobanche cuprea ; Christodoulos Makris (Lemesos, Cyprus) and Gerhard Loidolt (Ebenfurth, Austria) for permission to use images .

For excursion guides, notes, the communication of localities and the provision of images we would like to thank: Mariam Aghababyan (Yerevan, Armenia & Montpellier, France), Sergey Banketov (Stavropolskiy Kray, Russia), Karl Peter Buttler (Frankfurt/M., Germany), Ulrike Bertram und Elke Gehroldt (Gera, Germany), Ralf Hand (Berlin, Germany), Michael Heiss (Greifswald, Germany), Yana Levantzova (Stavropol, Russia), Michael Ristow (Berlin & Potsdam, Germany), Kiril Stoyanov (Sofia, Bulgaria) and Golshan Zare (Ankara, Turkey). Thanks also to the curators Uwe Braun (HAL, Halle, Germany) and Patrik Mráz ( PRC, Prague, Czech Republic) to search for putative type material of Orobanche alba var. superba .

For valuable suggestions we thank Kristin Meier (Frankfurt/O., Germany), Michael Ristow (Berlin & Potsdam, Germany) and Stefan Dressler (Frankfurt/M., Germany). For the final review of the translation into English we thank Leslie Lewis (Chepstow, UK). The authors thank the two reviewers for constructive comments.