Carex mediterranea C.B. Clarke ex Post

Jiménez-Mejías, Pedro, Rodríguez-Palacios, Giovanni E. & Martín-Bravo, Santiago, 2015, Taxonomic notes on some problematic Carex (Cyperaceae) names from SW Asia, Phytotaxa 219 (2), pp. 183-189 : 184

Carex mediterranea C.B. Clarke ex Post

The name Carex mediterranea C.B. Clarke ex Post (1896: 837) displays a somewhat similar problematic situation to that of C. eremitica . The species, distributed in Syria and Jordan, is currently considered as accepted in regional and global checklists ( Govaerts 2014, Jiménez-Mejías & Luceño 2011a), although it has previously been synonymized to C. hispida Willd. (in Schkurh 1801: 63) (section Thuringiacae G. Don (in Loudon 1830: 376)) by Mouterde (1966). Carex mediterranea was described on the first edition of Post’s Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai ( Post 1896). The indicatio locotypica states “between Burmah and Gerash (Gilead); Lattakia”, today in Jordan and Syria, respectively. Mouterde (1966) studied two type collections from Post’s herbarium (“Burma-Jérash, avril 1886 ” and “ Lattaquié, iun 1884”), probably housed at BEI (cf. Stafleu & Cowan 1976 –1988). He identified them as C. hispida , although he did not perform any formal typification. In despite of this synonymization was already taken up by Flora Palaestina ( Feinbrun-Dothan, 1986) , Danin (2000) again considered C. mediterranea as a distinct species, and stated that a “sedge expert” determination would be needed to verify a previous record ( El-Oqlah & Lahham, 1985).

We have found a voucher at K herbarium confirmed by C.B. Clarke as C. mediterranea , whose label (“ Burma — Gerash; May 4, 1886 ”) matches part of the indicatio locotypica in the protologue. This specimen, collected by J.E. Dinsmore, unequivocally belongs to C. hispida Willd. , which corroborates Mouterde’s (1966) synonymization. We hereby lectotypify the name C. mediterranea C.B. Clarke ex Post on this K material, and reassert that it is a heterotypic synonym of C. hispida Willd.

Carex mediterranea C.B. Clarke ex Post in Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai: 837 (1896).

Lectotypus (designated here): “ Burma —Gerash, 4 May 1886, J.E. Dinsmore” (K!).