Sesleria argentea var. tuzsoni Ujhelyi (1940: 67)

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 : 112-113

16. Sesleria argentea var. tuzsoni Ujhelyi (1940: 67)

≡ Sesleria tuzsoni (Ujhelyi) Ujhelyi (1959a: 603)

Type:— ITALY. Tuscany: Cima del Procinto, Alpi Apuane, inter gramina haud frequens, 07 July 1893, Sommier s.n. (holotype FI-007088!, isotype BP-0734312!). Image of holotype available at http://parlatore.msn.unifi.it/img72/ FI 007088.jpg.

Protologue information:—Habitat in Alpibus Apuanensibus, in monte Cima del Procinto.

Nomenclature:— The information provided in the protologue ( Ujhelyi 1940: 67) corresponds to a specimen deposited in FI (code 007088). Ujhelyi (1940: 70) explicitly cited the specimen deposited in Florence (Erbario Centrale di Firenze) as the typus of the name S. argentea var. tuzsoni , and subsequently made the same reference to the typus in the protologue of his new combination S. tuzsoni ( Ujhelyi 1959a: 603) . As this is the only specimen deposited in FI herbarium, we interpret it as the holotype. There is an isotype deposited in BP (BP-0734312). This specimen bears Ujhelyi’s annotation “ Typus Sesleria tuzsoni Ujhelyi , Budapest 6.VIII.1958 ”.

Ujhelyi (1959a) treated S. argentea ( Savi 1800: 48) Savi (1808: 68) as a synonym of S. tuzsoni . In the same paper Ujhelyi (1959a: 599, 601) also included S. argentea (sub Festuca argentea Savi 1800: 48 ) among the synonyms of S. autumnalis (Scopoli 1772: 56) Schultz (1855: 318) .

Taxonomy:— Regarding the taxonomic status of S. tuzsoni , there is still an open debate. Pignatti (1982) and Deyl (1980) consider S. tuzsoni a good species. Bechi & Garbari (1996) and Bechi et al. (1996) consider it an anomalous giant form of S. autumnalis possibly deriving from a polyploidization event (moreover, these authors report that during subsequent field surveys in the Mount Procinto area no giant forms of Sesleria were found). Conti et al. (2005) consider S. tuzsoni a synonym of S. argentea . Given the long and wide spikes of S. tuzsoni , the taxon may be a hybrid between S. argentea (W-Mediterranean range) and S. autumnalis (E-Mediterranean range), the Apuan Alps (locus classicus of S. tuzsoni ) being located in the overlapping area of the distribution of these two species.