Poa ligulata Boiss.

Chromosome number.

2 n = 14 (Fig. 3)

Voucher specimen.

Italy. Abruzzo. Salendo a Cima delle Murelle in loc. La Carozza (Pennapiedimonte, Chieti) (WGS84: 42.11324N, 14.14273E), rupi e pendii rupestri, 2300 m, 2 August 2011, F. Bartolucci & F. Conti (APP n°59214).

Method.

Squash preparations were made on root tips obtained from cultivated plants. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 4 h and then fixed in Carnoy solution for 1 h. After hydrolysis in 1N HCl at 60 °C, the tips were stained with leuco-basic fuchsine.

Observations.

Poa ligulata occurs in the Iberian Peninsula and NW Africa (Ortega-Olivencia and Devesa 2018). It was not recorded for the Italian flora until recently (Bartolucci et al. 2018, Conti et al. 2019). This is the first chromosome count for this species in Italy (Bedini et al. 2010 onwards), and it agrees with previous chromosome numbers published from Spain ( Küpfer 1968, Löve and Kjellqvist 1973). On the basis of a preliminary morphological analysis, the population from central Italy shows peculiar features, and a taxonomic study is in progress.

F. Bartolucci & F. Conti