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ABSTRACT
Seventy-seven specimens of the Chara hispida species complex, stored in the Herbarium of Sapienza University of Rome (RO), identified over time with different names, have been examined. This paper reports: (1) the most important information recognised on the labels, (2) images of selected specimens, (3) a nomenclatural update of the names according to the most recent monograph on Characeae, (4) a distribution map of the collection sites in Europe, and (5) a revision of the Italian exsiccata of this complex.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Associate Editor, Prof. Angelo Troia, and the reviewers for the many constructive suggestions that have improved the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The specimens are kept in RO in three different Herbaria: Herbarium Generale (RO-HG), Herbarium Cesatianum (RO-HC) and Herbarium Romanum (RO-HR).
2. ‘In Bruchteich pond near Tennstädt in Thüringia.’
3. ‘Related to Chara intermedia almost like Ch. strigosa to Ch. contraria.’
4. ‘In stagnant bays of river Havel near Brandenburg.’
5. Lagoon ponds near Lesina, loc. Acquarotta.
6. From Lesina, in Puglia.
7. Spezia, in the pools (in a small pond of an Erica prairie near Spezia).
8. ‘On the Gothland coast in the bay near Skalsö.’
9. ‘In the bays of Gaunö near Nostved in southern Seeland, in brackish water.’
10. ‘It differs a lot from my type species.’
11. ‘Of the two denominations of Kützing, Ch. aculeolata published in 1832 and Ch. papillosa published in 1834, I restore the latter, although it is not the oldest, because it represents, to my humble opinion, the type of the species, while Ch. aculeolata would be only a variety.’
12. ‘In a pond near Lake Constance.’
13. ‘From Salziger See near Halle.’
14. ‘From a clear pool of the Schwaketen Mooses (peat bog near Rundberg) near Constanz.’
15. ‘It approaches the shape that Kützing described as Chara aculeolata.’
16. ‘The characters correspond with those of the C. baltica (subspecies of C. intermedia, from which it is mainly distinguished by not being encrusted). As the C. baltica is only of the seas, and this is instead of a hill so I could not give it such a name; I therefore considered it as a forma munda of C. intermedia.’
17. The cortex appears sometimes tylacanthous, sometimes aulacanthous. However, as the previous authors referred the specimen to C. papillosa, we tend to consider it tylacanthous.
18. ‘In a pond near Constanz.’
19. ‘An excellent variety, often found in larger lakes, often in the company of the Ch. ceratophylla [= C. tomentosa L.], which differs from the small-spiny forms of Ch. hispida by the strongly protruding, secondary cortical tubes.’
20. ‘This form clearly shows the connection between the var. rudis and the normal form of C. hispida.’
21. ‘Along the Vesca stream near Civitella Cesi.’
22. ‘the species is indeed not real, in the sense that in nature there are organisms, individuals, populations, but certainly not species.’