Centaurea subtilis Bertol.

Chromosome number.

2 n = 22 (Fig. 1)

Voucher specimen.

Italy. Basilicata. Belvedere di Murgia, Altopiano della Murgia Materana (Matera) (WGS84: 40.664530N, 16.616152E), ca. 400 m s.l.m., 25 August 2017, L. Peruzzi (PI n°014382).

Method.

Squash preparations were made on root-tips obtained from germinating cypselae. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 3 hours and then fixed in Carnoy fixative solution for 1 hour. After hydrolysis in HCl 1N at 60 °C, the tips were stained in leuco-basic fuchsine.

Observations.

Centaurea subtilis is endemic to Southern Italy, where it has been recorded for only two regions: Puglia and Basilicata. This is the first count for plants from Basilicata; the chromosome number found, 2 n = 22, is in accordance with the counts previously published for other populations from Puglia (Damboldt and Matthäs 1975, Bianco et al. 1991).

G. Astuti, L. Peruzzi