Allium subgen. Allium sect. Pseudoscorodon Brullo, C. Brullo, Cambria, Giusso & Salmeri, 2019

Brullo, Salvatore, Brullo, Cristian, Cambria, Salvatore, Giusso del Galdo, Giampietro & Salmeri, Cristina, 2019, Allium albanicum (Amaryllidaceae), a new species from Balkans and its relationships with A. meteoricum Heldr. & Hausskn. ex Halacsy, PhytoKeys 119, pp. 117-136 : 117

Allium subgen. Allium sect. Pseudoscorodon Brullo, C. Brullo, Cambria, Giusso & Salmeri sect. nov.

Type.

Allium obtusiflorum DC in Redouté (1805).

Diagnosis.

Bulbus solitarius vel bulbilliferous, sine basali rhizomate, folia glabra vel pilosa, numquam filiformes, plerumque spathae valvae umbella breviores, persistentes, saltem 3-nervatae, staminum filamenta complanata inferne, interiores saepe 1-2 cuspidibus praedita, ovarium nectariferis poris bene evolutis, plica membranacea praeditis, partim nectariferum porum tegente.

Description.

Bulb solitary or bulbilliferous, leaves glabrous to hairy, never thread-like, spathe valves persistent and usually shorter than the inflorescence, at least 3-nerved, stamen filaments flattened and widened in the lower part, the inner ones often uni-bicuspidate, ovary with well-developed nectariferous pores, bordered by a membranous plica, partly covering the nectariferous pore.

Note.

Based on current knowledge ( Stearn 1978, 1980, Brullo and Pavone 1983, Pastor and Valdes 1983, Brullo and Tzanoudakis 1989, Tzanoudakis and Kollmann 1991, Brullo et al. 1992a, 1992b, 1993, 1994, 2018, Trigas and Tzanoudakis 2000, Khedim et al. 2016), the following species, all having a Mediterranean distribution, can be included in this new section, in addition to A. meteoricum and A. albanicum : A. chalkii Tzanoud. & Kollmann, A. chrysonemum Stearn, A. erythraeum Griseb., A. franciniae Brullo & Pavone, A. grosii Font Quer, A. lagarophyllum Brullo, Pavone & Tzanoud., A. maniaticum Brullo & Tzanoud., A. obtusiflorum DC., A. reconditum Pastor, Valdes & Munoz, A. rhodiacum Brullo, Pavone & Salmeri, A. rouyi G. Gautier, A. runemarkii Trigas & Tzanoud., A. seirotrichum Ducellier & Maire, A. thessalicum Brullo, Pavone, Salmeri & Tzanoud., A. trichocnemis Gay and A. valdecallosum Maire & Weiller. Amongst these species, we designated as type of the new section Allium obtusiflorum , since it is the oldest known species within this group and a good representative of the new section.

Based on the descriptions and related iconographies, all of these species share the set of discriminant features that characterise the new section and distinguish it very well from all the known sections of the subgenus Allium ( Friesen et al. 2006, Khassanov et al. 2011). Altogether, these species markedly differ from A. moschatum and consequently from the sect. Scorodon s. str., since the latter shows bulbs with a short basal rhizome, 1-3 mm long ( Fritsch et al. 2006b), filiform leaves, spathe valves usually 1-nerved, the larger one rarely obscurely 3-nerved, subulate stamen filaments, ovary with well-developed nectariferous pores which are almost fully covered by a membranous plica.

In order to highlight the morphological similarities and differences amongst the species of the new section, the following analytic key is provided.