Genista sericea Wulfen

Conti, Fabio, Bernardo, Liliana, Velari, Tiziana Cusma, Kosovel, Vera & Chiapella, Laura Feoli, 2014, Morphometric and karyological study of Genista sericea (Cytiseae-Fabaceae), Phytotaxa 181 (2), pp. 61-78 : 71

Genista sericea Wulfen in Jacquin (1789: 167) subsp. sericea

Lectotype (designated here):― ITALY. Genista sericea, Triest., Jan. , s.d., s.c. (Herb. Jacquin) ( W!).

≡ Cytisus sericeus (Wulfen) Visiani (1851: 269) . In the protologue the author mentioned “in montibus Obzinam inter & Tergestum”. Among Wulfen’s and Jacquin’s collections in W there is only one specimen collected in the locus classicus. No other original specimens were located in other herbaria .

Low, branched shrub, cushion-forming. Young woody stems weakly ribbed, glabrous, herbaceous stems hairy, appressed sericeous. Young stems slender and flexuous. Leaves alternate, simple, the basal ones obovate, the middle ones narrowly elliptic (4.5–)10.6(–17) × (1.5–)2.6(–4) mm in fertile stems, (14–)22.2(–43) × (2–)2.8(–4) mm in sterile stems, the flower-subtending leaves (5–)9.1(–14) × (1.2–)2(–3.5) mm, with appressed sericeous hairs on lower surface, upper glabrous, margins inrolled. Flowers in congested terminal racemes with 2–5 flowers or sometimes borne singly. Bracts foliaceous. Bracteoles hairy, very short (0.3–)0.6(–1.2) mm. Pedicels 1–7 mm with erect-patent hairs. Calyx (5.1–)6.8(–8.6) mm, hairy, upper teeth (2.6–)3.7(–5.3) mm, lower teeth (1.2–)1.9(–2.9) mm. Corolla yellow; standard (11.3–)13.8(–17.3) × (7.7–)10.8(–13) mm, broadly ovate, sericeous on back, claw (1.9–)2.4(–3) mm, basal half (5.5–)7.3(–8.6) mm; wings (10.1–)13.1(–15.6) × (2.4–)3.2(–3.7) mm, glabrous with ciliate basal margin, claw (2.1–)2.6(–3.1) mm; keel (10.4–)11.9(–13.3) × (2.4–)3(–3.5) mm, sericeous on back, claw (1.8–)2.8(–3.4) mm. Stigma introrse. Legume (12.5–)16.6(–22) × (3.4–)4.3(–5) mm, with dense erect-patent hairs, 1–5 seeded. Seeds (2–)2.5(–3) × (1.5–)2.1(–2.7) mm, lens shaped, brown to dark brown.

Etymology: ―The name of the species derives from the sericeous hairs of leaves and young stems.

Chromosome number: ―2n = 48.

Habitat: ―Rocky habitats on limestone or on settled alluvions (“magredi”), mostly with southern exposure generally between 50 m and 1000 m a.s.l. In Friuli-Venezia Giulia the taxon is considered characteristic of the alliance Satureion subspicatae ( Horvat 1962) Horvatić 1973; it is frequent in the coenoses Genisto sericeae -Seslerietum juncifoliae Poldini 1980 and Centaureo -Globularietum cordifoliae Pignatti 1953 ( Feoli Chiapella & Poldini 1993).

Phenology:―Flowering (late April) May–July.

Distribution: ―NE-Italy (Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia), SW-Slovenia, NW-Croatia ( Fig. 2 ).

Specimens seen: ―See Appendix.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Distribution of the different units.Yellow dots—Genista sericea subsp. sericea; red dots—Genista sericea subsp. rigida; blue dots—Genista sericea subsp. pollinensis.