Sesleria vaginalis Boissier & Orphanides, 2017

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 : 110-112

13. Sesleria vaginalis Boissier & Orphanides in Boissier (1859: 130)

Lectotype (designated here):— GREECE. Laconiae [Laconia]: In regione superiori montis Malevo [Parnon mt.], 6000 ped [cc 1850 m], 07–19 July 1857, Orphanides 953 (G-00176507) . Isolectotypes: LD-1088828, P-02657842, PRC-454473, S12-6576, S-G-5638, W-1885–0001691, WU-0079487). Image of the lectotype available at http://www.ville-ge.ch/imagezoom/?fif=cjbiip/cjb12/img_52/ G00176507.ptif&cvt=jpeg.

Other original material (syntype):— GREECE. Laconiae [Laconia]: In regione superiori montis Kyllene, supra Livadi, 6000 ped [cc 1850 m], 28 June 1851, Orphanides 2752 (WU-0079581!).

Protologue information:—Hab. in monte Kyllene Peloponnesi suprà Lìvadì propè cacumen alt. 6000’. FI. aest. cl. Orphanidès, in monte Chelmos cl. Heldr.

Nomenclature:— The species was described by Boissier and Orphanides, who cited two gatherings from Peloponnese in Greece: one of Orphanides from mt. Kyllene, and the other of Heldreich from mt. Chelmos. Although we searched and visited many European herbaria, we could not locate the material collected by Heldreich on mt. Chelmos, and found only a specimen in P (barcode 02657840) he collected on Mt. Olenos (current Erymanthos). However, we found two different gatherings of Orphanides from Peloponnese. The first (in WU-0079581) was collected at the locality mentioned in the protologue (mt. Kyllene, in 1851, coll. number 2752); however, the identity of the material on this sheet is vague. It is a syntype. The revising label of J. Ujhelyi is in accordance with our observations–the plants are morphologically more similar to Sesleria krajinae (1946: 145): culms ca. 20 cm long, narrow leaves, the uppermost culm leaf up to 2 cm. It is possible that these plants represent morphologically intermediate forms; indeed, Deyl (1946: 146) noted that transitional forms between S. krajinae and S. vaginalis exist in the areas where both species occur (the mountains on Peloponnese in Greece). The second specimen (in G) contains material collected on mt. Parnon (in 1857, coll. number 953), and the material from this second gathering is scattered in many European herbaria. Although not explicitly cited in the original publication, considering the broad definition of original material in the Code (Art. 9.3), including those elements “both unpublished and published, either prior to or together with the protologue upon which it can be shown that the description or diagnosis validating the name was based”, we consider the material from Parnon as belonging to original material for the name S. vaginalis . All these specimens bear the handwritten name on the label “ Sesleria vaginalis Boiss. & Orph. nov. spec. ” (in Boissier’s hand), indicating the authors studied and considered the material from this locality as belonging to their newly described species. We designate the specimen deposited in G as lectotype since it best fits the description in the protologue (dense inflorescence, leaves with setaceous apex).

Taxonomy:— The name S. vaginalis is accepted and in use ( Valdés & Scholz 2009, Clayton et al. 2016).