A critical conspectus of Italian Lycopodiaceae

Abstract

As a result of our work on the Lycopodiaceae account for the Critical Flora of Italy, a new, synonymic inventory of Italian taxa is presented, based on herbarium studies and critical re-examination of extant literature. Three genera with eight species are accepted: Huperzia (1 species), Lycopodiella (1), and Lycopodium (6). An additional, ninth species (Lycopodiella cernua) is listed as a casual alien. The genus Diphasiastrum, accepted in several recent works, is treated at sectional level within Lycopodium (three species and their three hybrids). Lycopodium lagopus ( = L. clavatum subsp. monostachyon) is a recent addition to the Italian flora. Images of five types and Internet URI of other six types are supplied. Dot distribution maps and a dichotomous key to Italian species are provided. It is shown that the family name Urostachyaceae (a family here not separated from Lycopodiaceae) was validly published and has priority over Huperziaceae, for which the oldest name, however, would be Phylloglossaceae.

Keywords::

• Distribution maps
• Italy
• Lycopodiidae
• nomenclature
• pteridophytes
• taxonomy

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the staff of all consulted herbaria (listed in Material and Methods), and especially to Anna Millozza and Agnese Tilia (RO) for their help in the search of the type of Lycopodium complanatum var. insubricum, Petra Broddle (K) and Chelsea Smith (PH) for their help in the search for the types of Lycopodium tristachyum, Gabriele Galasso, Enrico Banfi (MSNM) and Carlo Andreis (MI) for their attempts to locate the type of Lycopodium sicilianum, Lorenzo Cecchi and Chiara Nepi (FI) for their valuable assistance during the preparation of the distribution maps and the examination of collections preserved in FI, respectively. Particular thanks are due to Mats Hjertson (UPS) and to Rossella Marcucci (PAD) for providing the images of type specimens here reproduced, and to Brigitte Zimmer (B) for her help and hospitality.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data (list of selected specimina visa) for this article can be accessed at doi:10.1080/11263504.2015.1057263.

Additional information

Funding

This study is part of the “Flora Critica d'Italia” project and as such was funded by the Società Botanica Italiana onlus, the Fondazione per la Flora Italiana, and the International Foundation Pro Herbario Mediterraneo. Additional support was provided by the Università degli Studi di Palermo (Fondi di Ateneo per la Ricerca). We also acknowledge the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst e.V., DAAD) for providing financial support to A.T. for a research stay at the herbarium of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem [grant number A/14/01588].