Atlas Florae Europaeae notes, 34. Distributions and two conservation profiles of East European species of the Cytisusratisbonensis group (Fabaceae)

Background

The Cytisusratisbonensis group (Fabaceae) includes small shrubs with attractive yellow flowers, used in ornamental cultivation. It is widely distributed in southern forest, forest steppe and steppe zones of Eastern Europe, both in the lowlands and low mountains. This group is notorious for its taxonomic complexity and difficulties in identification, which accounted for incongruent taxonomic treatments and common identification errors, and resulted in a poor understanding of the distribution areas. The increasing availability of herbarium collections and accumulation of human observations through digital resources require their critical taxonomic revision and update in order to provide reliable data for plant species mapping, conservation and analysis of distribution areas.

New information

This paper describes a distributional dataset of East European species of the Cytisusratisbonensis group, which was prepared for the pan-European grid mapping project, Atlas Florae Europaeae. The taxonomic revision includes seven species and two interspecific hybrids and is based on the critical evaluation of diagnostic characters, nomenclature and synonymy. The territorial scope of this study is Eastern Europe, but it also includes some data from Central Europe, the Caucasus and the neighbouring territories of Siberia and Kazakhstan, which are included in order to trace eastern and south-eastern limits of the species distributions and to establish reliable synonymy. We report 3699 native occurrence records included in the dataset; these records are based on major herbarium collections which are known to hold specimens from Eastern Europe (DNZ, KRA, KRAM, KW, LE, LW, LWKS, MHA, MSK, MSKH, MSKU, MW), complemented by selected specimens from other herbaria (BUNS, CSAU, H, NNSU, NS, NSK, OXF, PVB, RWBG, TUL). The herbarium collections were examined largely de visu, but partly online. Besides the herbarium specimens, recognisable photographs documenting human observations on online platforms (florafauna.by, iNaturalist, Plantarium, UkrBIN) were also examined and included. All specimen records are accompanied with textual data and georeferences, which were produced for this dataset. Point and contour distribution maps are created for each accepted species. According to the distributional data, the Cytisusratisbonensis group may be classified as temperate lowland and steppic in Eastern Europe. Among European endemic shrubs, C.cinereus (as C.paczoskii) was assessed in 2017 as Near Threatened, whereas its new IUCN protection status is proposed as Least Concern because the new data demonstrated that its distribution area is much greater than previously believed. A species restricted to the Crimea, C.wulffii, is assessed here for the first time as Vulnerable because of its restricted area and small population size (criteria D1,2).

A multi-taxon analysis of European Red Lists reveals major threats to biodiversity

Biodiversity loss is a major global challenge and minimizing extinction rates is the goal of several multilateral environmental agreements. Policy decisions require comprehensive, spatially explicit information on species' distributions and threats. We present an analysis of the conservation status of 14,669 European terrestrial, freshwater and marine species (ca. 10% of the continental fauna and flora), including all vertebrates and selected groups of invertebrates and plants. Our results reveal that 19% of European species are threatened with extinction, with higher extinction risks for plants (27%) and invertebrates (24%) compared to vertebrates (18%). These numbers exceed recent IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) assumptions of extinction risk. Changes in agricultural practices and associated habitat loss, overharvesting, pollution and development are major threats to biodiversity. Maintaining and restoring sustainable land and water use practices is crucial to minimize future biodiversity declines.

Species conservation profile and revision of Salviakorolkowii (Lamiaceae, Lamiales), a narrow endemic of the Western Tian-Shan

Background

Salviakorolkowii (Lamiaceae) has been considered a species of highest conservation priority due to its narrow distribution and isolated taxonomic position. The species has been known from Uzbekistan and, questionably, Kyrgyzstan and treated as endemic to the Western Tian-Shan. Its modern conservation status according to the IUCN Criteria has not been established.

New information

The taxonomic position of Salviakorolkowii is evaluated; the species is treated as the sole member of S.sect.Odontochilus (Pobed.) Sennikov, comb. nov. because of its morphological differences and phylogenetic isolation. The herbarium collections are completely revised and the species is proven to occur mainly in Uzbekistan with a single locality (new country record) in Kazakhstan; its former report from Kyrgyzstan (one locality) is confirmed and documented by herbarium specimens. The species occurrences are mapped and its conservation status is assessed as Vulnerable due to the restricted size and continuous decline of its populations because of the ongoing degradation and destruction of its primary habitat (variegated outcrops) at lower elevations. This study highlights the importance of a thorough revision of herbarium collections in Central Asia for conservation purposes.

The first checklist of alien vascular plants of Kyrgyzstan, with new records and critical evaluation of earlier data. Contribution 2

Background

We continue the inventory of alien vascular plants of Kyrgyzstan, with emphasis on the time and pathways of introduction of the species and their current status in the territory. Each taxon is discussed in the context of plant invasions in Central Asia. This work is a further development of the preliminary checklist of alien plants of Kyrgyzstan, which was compiled for the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species in 2018.

New information

This contribution includes all alien species of Kyrgyzstan belonging to Solanaceae and Asphodelaceae and one species of Asteraceae. Physalisphiladelphicus (syn. P.ixocarpa) is reported for the first time from Central Asia, as new to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, thus marking a recent invasion with a variety of imported grain and seed material. The old records of P.ixocarpa from Uzbekistan are based on misidentified specimens of P.angulata. Physalisangulata is an old cotton immigrant in Central Asia, whose invasion started in the 1920s; it is excluded from the alien flora of Kyrgyzstan as registered in error on the basis of cultivated plants. Alkekengiofficinarum is an archaeophyte of the Neolithic period in Central Asia, formerly used for food, now strongly declining and largely casual in Kyrgyzstan. The only historical record of Physalisviscosa from Uzbekistan was based on a technical error and belongs to A.officinarum. Daturastramonium and Hyoscyamusniger were introduced as medicinal plants during the period of the Arabic invasion of Central Asia, by the 11th century. Daturainnoxia is a newly recorded casual alien, recently escaped from ornamental cultivation. Nicandraphysalodes is a casual alien, which was cultivated by Russian colonists in the early 20^th century for culinary use and is currently used in ornamental cultivation. Hemerocallisfulva was a remnant of historical cultivation in the former Khanate of Buxoro, and its formerly established colonies are presumably extinct in the wild. Bidensfrondosa was seemingly introduced with contaminated forage and seed of American origin during the late Soviet period and started to spread in the period of independence; its invasion in the former USSR is analysed.

New records in non-native vascular plants of Russian Lapland

Background

The non-native vascular plants of Murmansk Region (European Russia) are under active investigation towards the compilation of the first complete checklist. This work is part of the project 'Flora of Russian Lapland', which ultimately aims at the complete inventory of the taxonomy, distribution and status of vascular plant species in Murmansk Region, based on the comprehensive database of herbarium specimens, field observations and literature.

New information

New territory-level records of non-native vascular plants emerged during our inventory of herbarium collections and recent fieldwork. Fourteen species (Anthemisruthenica, Aruncusdioicus, Bromuscommutatus, Chaerophyllumhirsutum, Galegaorientalis, Geumaleppicum, Leonurusquinquelobatus, Lepidiumdensiflorum, Levisticumofficinale, Myrrhisodorata, Phleumphleoides, Prunusarmeniaca, Rorippasylvestris, Seneciovernalis) are reported as new to Murmansk Region. The historical occurrences of alien plants appeared in the territory largely as contaminants (of seed or forage). In particular, Rorippasylvestris and Seneciovernalis arrived with the forage imported during the Second World War. All recent occurrences originated by escape from confinement (ornamental purposes, horticulture, agriculture), reflecting a high diversity of the modern assortment of cultivated plants in commerce and private gardens. Regarding the invasion status, five alien species are considered casual and eight species are treated as locally established or persisting (for uncertain time). Only one species, Galegaorientalis, is considered naturalised and capable of further spreading in the territory, although without invasive potential.

Evolutionary relationships, biogeography and morphological characters of Glinus (Molluginaceae), with special emphasis on the genus composition in Sub-Saharan Africa

Glinus is a small genus of Molluginaceae with 8-10 species mostly distributed in the tropics of the World. Its composition and evolutionary relationships were poorly studied. A new molecular phylogeny constructed here using nuclear (ITS) and chloroplast (rbcL, trnK-matK) markers confirmed the monophyly of the genus. Based on ITS analysis, the following well-supported lineages are present within Glinus: the G. bainesii lineage is recovered as sister to the remainder of the genus followed by G. oppositifolius. Three other clades are: G. hirtus with G. orygioides; G. radiatus and G. lotoides; the latter is represented by a sample from North America, and G. zambesiacus as sister to G. setiflorus + G. lotoides + G. dictamnoides. On the plastid gene tree, G. bainesii + G. oppositifolius form a sister clade to all other Glinus species. The next clade is formed by G. hirtus and G. orygioides followed by G. radiatus plus an American sample of G. lotoides. The next branch comprises G. setiflorus as sister to G. zambesiacus + G. lotoides + G. dictamnoides. Glinus seems to have originated from Africa around the Late Eocene or Early Miocene, with further radiations to Australia and the Americas during the Late Miocene or Late Pliocene. Compared with the previous limited character set used for the diagnostics, we have found ten new morphological and carpological traits distinguishing Glinus members. In both trees based on nuclear and plastid datasets, the major phylogenetic clades cannot be characterized by the peculiar morphological characters. Many shared character states leading to their contrasting pattern in the multivariate analysis model are interpreted as a high homoplasy in the phylogenetically distant species. We paid special attention to the composition of the genus in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region with the greatest species diversity. Our results provide new insight into the taxonomy of Glinus in this region. Glinus lotoides var. virens accepted in many previous works is a synonym of G. dictamnoides that is closely related to G. lotoides based on molecular analysis and morphological characters. The status of the American populations of G. lotoides needs further investigation due to different characters of the specimens from the Old and the New World. Many specimens previously identified as G. lotoides var. virens and as the intermediates G. lotoides × G. oppositifolius belong to G. zambesiacus sp. nov. and G. hirtus comb. nov. (≡ Mollugo hirta); the latter species is resurrected from synonymy after 200 years of unacceptance. In some African treatments, G. hirtus was known under the invalidly published name G. dahomensis. Glinus zambesiacus is distributed in the southern and eastern parts of tropical Africa, and G. hirtus previously assumed to be endemic to West Africa is indeed a species with a wide distribution across the tropical part of the continent. Glinus microphyllus previously accepted as endemic to West Tropical Africa together with other new synonyms (G. oppositifolius var. lanatus, G. herniarioides, Wycliffea rotundifolia) is considered here as G. oppositifolius var. keenaniicomb. nov. (≡ Mollugo hirta var. keenanii), a variety found across the entire distribution of G. oppositifolius (Australia, Asia, and Africa). The presence of the American G. radiatus in Africa is not confirmed, and all records of this species belong to G. hirtus. The lectotypes of some names (G. dictamnoides, G. herniarioides, Mollugo hirta, M. setiflora, Pharnaceum pentagynum, Wycliffea) as well as a neotype of G. trianthemoides are designated. A new key to the identification of all Glinus species in Sub-Saharan Africa is provided. A checklist is given of all accepted species in this region (G. bainesii, G. hirtus, G. lotoides, G. oppositifolius s.l., G. setiflorus, and G. zambesiacus) with their nomenclature, morphological description and geographical distribution.

New records in vascular plants alien to Kyrgyzstan

A series of brief notes on distribution of vascular plants alien to Kyrgyzstan is presented. A further expansion of Anthemisruthenica (Asteraceae), Crambeorientalis (Brassicaceae) and Salviaaethiopis (Lamiaceae) in northern and northwestern Kyrgyzstan is recorded. The first record of Chenopodiumvulvaria (Amaranthaceae) from the northern side of Kyrgyz Range is confirmed, and the species was found for the second time in Alay Range. The ephemerous occurrence of Hirschfeldiaincana (Brassicaceae) in Central Asia is recorded for the first time from Fergana Range. Tragusracemosus (Poaceae) is first recorded from the Chüy Depression as an ephemerous alien. Arrhenatherumelatius, escaped from cultivation and locally established, is new to the country. The second record of established occurrence of Centaureasolstitialis (Asteraceae) and an ephemerous occurrence of Glauciumcorniculatum (Papaveraceae) are presented. Complete information is collected about the occurrence of every mentioned species in Kyrgyzstan.