Onobrychis alba (Waldst. & Kit.) Desv. subsp. echinata (Guss.) P.W.Ball

Astuti, Giovanni, Bartolucci, Fabrizio, Bernardo, Liliana, Conti, Fabio & Peruzzi, Lorenzo, 2019, Chromosome numbers for the Italian flora: 8, Italian Botanist 8, pp. 117-121 : 117

Onobrychis alba (Waldst. & Kit.) Desv. subsp. echinata (Guss.) P.W.Ball

Chromosome number.

2 n = 14 ( Fig. 2 )

Voucher specimen.

Italy. Puglia. Gravina di Leucaspide (Statte, Taranto) (WGS84: 40.566319N, 17.190559E), gariga, 150 m s.l.m., 25 June 2019, L. Bernardo & G. Maiorca (CLU).

Method.

Squash preparations were made on root-tips obtained from germinating seeds. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 3 hours and then fixed in Carnoy fixative solution for 1 hour. After hydrolysis in HCl 1N at 60 °C, the tips were stained in leuco-basic fuchsine.

Observations.

Onobrychis alba subsp. echinata is endemic to Southern Italy, where it occurs in Puglia, Basilicata, and Calabria. Cenci et al. (2000) reported a chromosome number 2 n = 2 x = 14 for all the Italian subspecies of O. alba , but without providing any information about the source of these data. Therefore, we report here the first count safely attributable to a well-defined population of O. alba subsp. echinata . This count is, however, in accordance with Cenci et al. (2000). Pedrotti and Cortini Pedrotti (1971) reported the same chromosome number for a population of O. alba subsp. alba from Umbria. Our count supports the differentiation of this taxon from O. calabrica Širj., a tetraploid species with 2 n = 4 x = 28 chromosomes, endemic to a small area in south-eastern Calabria ( Bernardo et al. 2018).

G. Astuti, L. Bernardo

Figures

Figure 2. Onobrychis alba (Waldst. & Kit.) Desv. subsp. echinata (Guss.) P. W. Ball, 2 n = 14. Scale bar: 10 μm.