Sesleria doerfleri Hayek (1914: 360)

Pietro, Romeo Di, Kuzmanović, Nevena, Iamonico, Duilio & Lakušić, Dmitar, 2017, Nomenclatural and taxonomic notes on Sesleria sect. Argenteae (Poaceae), Phytotaxa 309 (2), pp. 101-117 : 103

5. Sesleria doerfleri Hayek (1914: 360)

Lectotype (designated here):— GREECE: Kreta [Crete], Distrikt Sphakia [Sfakiá], Schlucht von Samaria [ Gorge of Samaria ], Felswände [Cliffs], 7 April 1904, Dörfler 171 (WU-0071605!, isolectotypes at B (codes 10-9009213, 10-9009214, 10-9009215), US (code 00141392), and W (codes 1916-0032664, 1916-0032665, 0063475). Image of the lectotype available at http://herbarium.univie. ac.at/database/detail.php? ID =396259.

Protologue information:— Kreta: Distr. Sphakia. Schlucht von Samaria, Felswände, leg. J. Dörfler, 7 April 1904.

Nomenclature:— Hayek described S. doerfleri on the basis of material collected by Dörfler on Crete; he cited a single gathering ( Hayek 1914: 360). We found original material at B, W and WU; all the specimens bear labels with collector number 171. On the labels of the two specimens deposited in W (W 1916-0032664, W 1916-0032665), Eduard Hackel added the identification: “ S. phleoides var. doerfleri ”, but he did not describe such a taxon. Although there are no annotations by Hayek on these sheets, we assume he studied both specimens before describing the new species. This can be corroborated by the annotations of Hayek on the specimens deposited in B, viz. “ Sesleria dörfleri (Hackel) Hayek”, which means he was aware of the unpublished name of Hackel. Like Hackel, Hayek considered S. doerfleri closely related to the Caucasian species S. phleoides Steven ex Roemer & Schultes (1817: 604) . The specimen selected here as lectotype (WU 0071605) was marked as “spec. orig.” by Hayek, and as “Typus” by Deyl. Although this specimen is marked as holotype in the virtual herbarium database (URL listed above; accessed 06 March 2017), we designate this specimen as lectotype because multiple sheets of this collection exist. The published specific epithet “ dörfleri ” is corrected to “ doerfleri ” according to Art. 60.6 ( McNeill et al. 2012). The label of Deyl on specimen WU 0071605 bears the remark that the plant is similar to S. gigantea and possibly identical to it: “Sesleriae giganteae similis (identica?!)”.

Taxonomy:— Based on preliminary results of a phylogenetic study of the genus Sesleria ( Lakušić et al. 2013a, Kuzmanović et al. in press.), S. doerfleri belongs to Sesleria sect. Argenteae , and to the S. robusta species complex ( Lakušić et al. 2013b). Based on this molecular analysis, the closest relative of S. doerfleri is not S. pheloides , as thought by Hackel and Hayek, because S. pheloides belongs to Sesleria sect. Sesleria (≡ S. sect. Calcariae Deyl 1946: 77, Art. 22.1, McNeill et al. 2012, Kuzmanović et al. 2015b, in press).