Ranunculus cornutus var. scandicinus (Boiss.) Ziffer-Berger & Leschner

Ziffer-Berger, Jotham & Leschner - R, Hagar V., 2013, New interpretation of the Ranunculus cornutus-R. marginatus complex (Ranunculaceae), Phytotaxa 151 (1), pp. 35-43 : 38

Ranunculus cornutus var. scandicinus (Boiss.) Ziffer-Berger & Leschner , comb. nov. Basionym: Ranunculus

trachycarpus Fisch. & Mey. var. scandicinus Boiss (1867: 55) . Type (designated by Davis 1959):— ISRAEL .

‘ In humidis prope Askalon’, Kotchy 423 (lectotype G!, isolectotype K!, P!) .

Homotypic synonyms: — Ranunculus scandicinus (Boiss.) Davis (1959: 156) , R. marginatus Urv. var. scandicinus (Boiss.) Zohary 1: 206 (1966: 206).

Heterotypic synonym: — Ranunculus trachycarpus Fisch. & Mey. var. minor Zohary (1941: 152) . Type (designated here):— ISRAEL [as Palestine]: Philistean Plain, Sarona [Tel Aviv], 15 May 1924, Eig s.n. (lectotype HUJ!).

This variety differs from R. cornutus var. cornutus by its narrowly margined achenes ( Fig. 2 , 3 , 5 ), shorter achene beaks and the narrowly margined achene beak. The beak length varies from ½ the length of the achene disc diameter at most, to 1/5 and even shorter.

Distribution: — Syria, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Egypt and Libya. Due to the scarcity of collections from most countries in the Middle East, it is unclear how far its range extends and to what extent it is sympatric with var. cornutus . In Israel, this is the only variety presently found. Material from Israel cited as R. cornutus by Davis (1959) should be assigned to R. cornutus var. scandicinus . It is frequent in open and humid habitats in the Mediterranean region.

A small form of this variety was described by Zohary (1941) as R. marginatus var. minor . Zohary (1966) synonymized this variety with R. marginatus var. scandicinus , as the "hunger form" of the latter.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Middle leaves of R. cornutus var. scandicinus. A—First degree dissection, leaf deeply divided into three lobes (ISRAEL (then Palestine), Wadi Musrara, Eig, Zohary and Feinbrun 2 May 1926 [HUJ]). B—Second degree dissection, leaf divided three lobes, each lobe deeply dissected into three trilobed lobules; plant from the same population as in A. C—Third degree dissection, leaf divided into three lobes, each lobe divided into three lobules and lobules are deeply dissected (ISRAEL, Hula Valley, Beldinger 19.May1953 [HUJ]). Drawings by Tom Fogel

FIGURE 3. Herbarium specimen of R. cornutus var. scandicinus, showing dissected leaves and short-beaked achenes (ISRAEL [then Palestine], Athlit, 2 May 1935, R. Aaronsohn and Laurent-Täckholm, [AAR])

FIGURE 5. Schematic drawing of Ranunculus achenes, side view: 1) R. marginatus var. trachycarpus from Turkey; 2) R. cornutus var. cornutus from Syria 3) R. cornutus var. scandicinus from Israel 4) R. cornutus var. leiocarpus from Azerbaijan. Author's illustration.