identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
DDE3F748213E5EB4859678C0F5B3D58C.text	DDE3F748213E5EB4859678C0F5B3D58C.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Vincetoxicum samothracicum Goula, Doumas & Constantinidis 2026	<div><p>Vincetoxicum samothracicum Goula, Doumas &amp; Constantinidis sp. nov.</p><p>Diagnosis.</p><p>Related to but distinct from Vincetoxicum canescens by its unique reddish-purple color of the corolla and follicles (vs. dull yellow and green, respectively), the narrowly lanceolate, often obtuse upper leaves (vs. ovate, acute), and the lanceolate follicles (vs. ovoid). Also related but differing from V. creticum and V. tmoleum in a number of morphological characters (Table 1).</p><p>Type.</p><p>Greece • Samothraki Island: Nomos Evrou, Eparchia Samothrakis. <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=25.583334&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=40.466667" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 25.583334/lat 40.466667)">Mt. Saos, along the main path from the Therma settlement to the mountain’s summit, ca. 880 m linear distance NW of the summit</a>, rocky slopes, diabase basalt, 1383 m a. s. l., 40°28'N, 25°35'E, 28 July 2021, Goula &amp; Doumas 3225 (holotype, ATHU; isotype, ATH). Figs 1, 2, 5 .</p><p>Description.</p><p>Perennial multibranched procumbent herb ca. 30–70 cm broad, stems 15–35 (– 40) cm long, stem and branches hollow, grayish-green to purple, puberulent with crisped, deflexed hairs. Leaves grayish-green; lower leaves (25 –) 35–60 × 18–26 mm, ovate to broadly ovate, broadly cuneate to rounded or subcordate, often oblique at base, subacute, sessile to subsessile, glabrescent, crisped-puberulent only at margins and veins on both sides; upper leaves gradually smaller, lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, cuneate to rounded or subcordate at base, subacute or obtuse, subsessile or with a petiole up to 1 mm long, crisped-puberulent at margins and veins to glabrescent on both sides. Inflorescences extra-axillary, sessile, (1 –) 3–5 (– 6) flowered; pedicels 1–1.5 mm long and 0.2 mm wide. Sepals lanceolate, acute, ca. 1.5 mm long, glabrescent, green with narrow white, ciliate margins. Corolla reddish-purple, lobes contorted in bud and apparently remaining erect, forming an urceolate flower, ca. 4 × 2 mm, broadly lanceolate, acuminate, abaxially almost glabrous, adaxially with dense, white lanate hairs up to 0.5 mm long. Corona of five erect segments free almost to their base; each segment ca. 1 mm long, broadly deltoid apically becoming narrower towards the base, margins and apex slightly recurved. Pollinarium with pollinia ovoid, ca. 195–210 μm long; corpusculum ovoid to oblong, ca. 210–240 μm long. Follicles 4–5 × ca. 1 cm, lanceolate, minutely puberulent to glabrescent, reddish-purple. Seeds 5–6 × ca. 4 mm, brown to reddish-brown, slightly winged along margins; coma white, 12–14 mm long.</p><p>Distribution.</p><p>At present, Vincetoxicum samothracicum is known only from Mt. Saos, Samothraki, where it is restricted to two distinct areas (Fig. 6). The larger of these is located on the northern slopes of the mountain, close to the main summit, at 1383–1555 m a. s. l. Individuals have also been recorded on the southeastern slopes of the mountain, ca. 6 km SSE of the former area, at approximately 780–1045 m a. s. l. Biel and Tan (2014) reported V. fuscatum from the estuary of the Vatos stream, near sea level, but the identity of those plants remains unknown.</p><p>Ecology and habitat.</p><p>The species grows in rock fissures, open stony places, or among small shrubs of Juniperus oxycedrus L. (Fig. 1), on basaltic and granitic substrates (Institute for Geology and Subsurface Research 1972; Tsikouras and Hatzipanagiotou 1995). Around the summit of Mt. Saos, it occurs together with other endemic or noteworthy taxa, such as Drymocallis halacsyana (Degen) Kurtto &amp; Strid, Galium samothracicum Rech. f., Herniaria degenii (F. Herm.) Chaudhri, Polygonum icaricum Rech. f., Stachys leucoglossa subsp. samothracica (Degen) Biel &amp; Kit Tan, and Viola samothracica (Degen) Raus. Although the flowers of Vincetoxicum samothracicum appear almost closed (Fig. 1 B), they are frequently visited by butterflies of the family Lycaenidae (Fig. 7 B), indicating that the distal upper part of the corolla is open. These butterflies may serve as pollinators. Vincetoxicum samothracicum is apparently a host to larvae of the genus Hypena Schrank ( Erebidae; Fig. 7 A), as also reported for the closely related species V. canescens and V. tmoleum (Wagner and Fritsch 2017) .</p><p>Etymology.</p><p>The epithet “ samothracicum ” refers to the Greek name of the island, Samothraki, on which the new species occurs.</p><p>Conservation status.</p><p>Vincetoxicum samothracicum has a very limited range, with an extent of occurrence (EOO) of 1.991 km 2 and an area of occupancy (AOO) of 16 km 2, meeting the thresholds for Critically Endangered and Endangered, respectively, under IUCN criteria B 1 and B 2 (IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee 2024). However, the island population is estimated at about 2000 individuals, and the species does not appear to face any significant threats at present. Despite severe grazing pressure from numerous goats that ravage the flora of Mt. Saos, V. samothracicum remains unaffected, apparently due to toxic chemicals in the plant, as reported for other species of the genus (Prameela et al. 2024). The entire distribution range lies within the GR 1110004 NATURA 2000 site and is also included in the national network of Roadless Areas (PAAs) as part of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy’s “ Roadless Mountains ” initiative, which aims at the strict protection of natural areas without road access (Ministry of Environment and Energy 2021). Considering all the above, the species is assessed as Least Concern (LC; IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee 2024). Monitoring of the species is highly recommended due to its very limited distribution. A potential future change in the mountain’s protection status, such as permitting the construction of wind farms, may result in the destruction of the species’ restricted distribution area.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/DDE3F748213E5EB4859678C0F5B3D58C	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Pensoft via Plazi	Goula, Katerina;Doumas, Panagiotis;Constantinidis, Theophanis	Goula, Katerina, Doumas, Panagiotis, Constantinidis, Theophanis (2026): Vincetoxicum samothracicum (Apocynaceae), a new species from Mt. Saos, Samothraki Island, Greece. PhytoKeys 270: 41-56, DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.270.174922
