Saturday, October 12, 2019

[Botany • 2019] Linaria vettonica (Plantaginaceae) • A New Species of Linaria sect. Supinae from Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central mountains, Iberian Peninsula)


Linaria vettonica Luceño, Mazuecos & P. Vargas

in Luceño, Fernández-Mazuecos & Vargas, 2019. 

Abstract

Linaria vettonica Luceño, Mazuecos & P. Vargas, a new species of Linaria sect. Supinae, is described. It is a narrow endemic inhabiting the southern hills of the western and central massifs of Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central mountains, Iberian Peninsula). The five populations found occur on siliceous, sandy soils of Quercus pyrenaica woodland clearings and slopes. L. vettonica can be distinguished from Linaria caesia by the densely glandular-pubescent inflorescence, dark purple corolla and brown seeds with tuberculate disc, and from L. aeruginea by its erect fertile stems and dark purple -never blackish- corolla.

Key words: Linaria, Sierra de Gredos, narrow endemic, taxonomy, seed micromorphology.

Figure 2.  Linaria vettonica.
A: habit. B: young capsules. C: sterile stem and young inflorescence.

 Linaria vettonica Luceño, Mazuecos & P. Vargas

Diagnosis: Linaria vettonica is similar to L. caesia and L. aeruginea. It differs from the former by the following features: the inflorescence is densely glandular-pubescent (vs. glabrous or sparsely glandular-pubescent in L. caesia); the corolla is dark purple (vs. yellow or whitish-yellow with reddish-brown veins in L. caesia);and seeds are brown (vs. black in L. caesia), with tuberculate disc (vs. smooth or rarely with tuberculate disc in L. caesia). It differs from L. aeruginea mainly by its erect or, rarely, erect-ascending stems (decumbent to erect-ascending in L. aeruginea), and by its deep purple corolla (purple-blackish -in Gredos populations-, reddish, reddish-purple, pink-purple, greyish-purple, yellow or yellow-orange in L. aeruginea).

Etymology: This species is named after the Vettones, a Celtic people that inhabited Sierra de Gredos in pre-Roman times. 

Figure 1. Distribution range of  Linaria vettonica in Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central mountains, Iberian Peninsula). Known localities are shown as stars.

Distribution: southern hills of the western and centrals massifs of Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central mountains, Iberian Peninsula; Fig. 1).

Habitat: woodland (Quercus pyrenaica Willd.) clearings, slopes, siliceous sandy soils.

Elevational range: 470-1250 m.


Modesto Luceño, Mario Fernández-Mazuecos and Pablo Vargas. 2019. A New Species of Linaria sect. Supinae from Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central mountains, Iberian Peninsula). Acta Botanica Malacitana. 44DOI: 10.24310/abm.v44i0.6679

Una especie nueva de Linaria sect. Supinae en la Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central, Península Ibérica)
Resumen: Se describe Linaria vettonica Luceño, Mazuecos & P. Vargas, una nueva especie de Linaria sect. Supinae. Se trata de un endemismo restringido que se distribuye por las vertientes meridionales de los macizos occidental y central de la Sierra de Gredos (Sistema Central, Península Ibérica). Las cinco poblaciones encontradas aparecieron sobre suelos arenosos silíceos en claros y laderas de bosques de Quercus pyrenaica. L. vettonica se distingue de L. caesia por sus inflorescencias densamente glandular-pubescentes, corolas de color púrpura oscuro y semillas marrones con disco ornamentado con numerosos tubérculos. De L. aeruginea se distingue por sus tallos fértiles erectos y sus flores de color púrpura oscuro, nunca negruzcas.
Palabras clave: Linaria, sierra de Gredos, endemismo restringido, taxonomía, micromorfología de semillas.