Limonium cythereum Artelari & Georgiou (1999: 404)

Brullo, Salvatore & Erben, Matthias, 2016, The genus Limonium (Plumbaginaceae) in Greece, Phytotaxa 240 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

44. Limonium cythereum Artelari & Georgiou (1999: 404) ( Fig. 44 )

Type:― GREECE. Ionian Islands: island of Kithira, Chalkos bay , NW of Cape Kapello, on calcareous maritime rocks, alt. 0–4 m, 36° 08´N, 23° 02´E, 6 July 1997, Artelari & Georgiou 1501 (holotype UPA, isotypes W!, Herb. Erben!) .

Description: —Plant perennial, glabrous, forming a sub-shrub 25–75 cm tall, with some more or less erect stems and a robust tap-root. Caudices 25–60 mm long, branched, densely spirally leafy in the upper third, living leaves in rosettes at apices of caudices. Leaves fleshy, grey-green, flat, more or less verrucate, 15–55 mm long and 8–15 mm broad, spathulate to oblanceolate, apex obtuse to rounded, mucronate, retuse, with one central nerve, gradually tapering into the petiole. Stems 25–60 cm long, slightly flexuous, rugose, slightly constricted at the nodes, branching begins near the base of the stems; occasionally proliferating in axils. Inflorescence obtrullate in outline. Sterile branches several, 3–11 cm long, straight, undivided. Fertile branches 6–15 cm long, straight to slightly curved, directed obliquely upwards, forming branching angles of 30°– 50°, normally unbranched. Spikes 2–7 cm long, straight to slightly curved, directed obliquely upwards. Spikelets 5.5–7.0 mm long, composed of 1–3 flowers, remotely arranged with 1–4 per cm. Outer bract 1.6–2.2 mm long and 2.0– 2.3 mm broad, triangular-ovate, acute to obtuse, bract margin broadly membranous; central part fleshy, sparsely very shortly hairy, acuminate. Middle bract membranous, 2.0– 2.5 mm long and 1.9–2.1 mm broad, elliptic to oblong-obovate, rounded; one of the two rips with some short hairs. Inner bract 5.0– 6.1 mm long and 3.7–4.5 mm broad, obovate, rounded, in the upper third sparsely to densely, shortly hairy; bract margin broadly membranous; central part fleshy, 4.0– 4.3 mm long and 2.0– 2.9 mm broad, oblong to oblong-obovate, acuminate, forming a triangular tip, 0.7–0.9 mm long, not reaching the upper margin. Calyx 4.5–5.2 mm long, exceeding the inner bract by 1.4–1.8 mm; calyx tube densely long hairy, with 5 ribs sparsely to densely, shortly hairy in the upper third, ending at the base of lobes; calyx lobes ca. 0.5 × 1.0 mm, broadly semi-elliptic. Corolla pale violet.

Chromosome number: —2n = 52 ( Artelari & Georgiou 2003).

Distribution: —Restricted to Antikythira and Kythira, islands located in the southern Peloponnese, where it is very rare ( Fig. 88K ).

Habitat: —Calcareous rocky coast.

Taxonomic remarks: — L. cythereum is a taxonomically isolated species. It have some morphological similarities to the taxa belonging to the L. sieberi group, from which it differs by having a sparsely hairy inner bract. It differs from L. sieberi , L. hierapetrae and L. minoicum by having 1-nerved leaves, from L. cornarianum by having broader, flat leaves, from L. creticum by having shorter inner bracts, from L. chrisianum by having shorter inner bracts, from L. sartorianum by having shorter spikelets and from L. pigadiense by having broader leaves.

Specimens examined: — GREECE. Ionian Islands: Insula Antikythera: Potamos, in parte boreali insulae, in saxosis litoreis, 8 May 1964, K. H. Rechinger 24411 (M); Cerigo, im Sand der Meeresbucht des Vall Charko, 20 June 1880, Spreitzenhofer 82 (B, WU); Kithira, Chalkos Bay , 15 June 2004, Brullo & Musarella s.n. (CAT, Herb. Erben) .

LIMONIUM (PLUMBAGINACEAE)

Phytotaxa 240 (1) © 2016 Magnolia Press • 105 106 • Phytotaxa 240 (1) © 2016 Magnolia Press

BRULLO & ERBEN

Figures

FIGURE 44. Limonium cythereum Artelari & Georgiou. A) Habit; B) Spikelet; C) Outer bract; D) Middle bract; E) Inner bract; F) Calyx; G) Calyx lobes; H) Leaf. (Drawn from “Kithira, Chalkos Bay,, Brullo & Musarella s.n., CAT, Herb. Erben”).

FIGURE 88. (Map 3) Geographical distribution of Limonium amopicum (A); L. doerfleri (B); L. ikaricum (C); L. elaphonisicum (D); L. creticum (E); L. damboldtianum (F); L. astypaleanum (G); L. glomeratum (H); L. grabusae (I); L. isidorum (J); L. cythereum (K); L. kirikosicum (L); L. dolihiense (M); L. minoicum (N).