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Type: Article
Published: 2021-05-24
Page range: 111–132
Abstract views: 40
PDF downloaded: 57

Taxonomic position and circumscription of Cardamine barbaraeoides (Brassicaceae), a systematically challenging taxon from the Balkan Peninsula

Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-845 23 Bratislava, Slovak Republic. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, CZ-128 01 Prague, Czech Republic.
Žibritov 29, 963 01, Slovak Republic.
Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-845 23 Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-845 23 Bratislava, Slovak Republic. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, CZ-128 01 Prague, Czech Republic.
Cardamine Brassicaceae Balkan Peninsula multivariate morphometrics Eudicots

Abstract

The Balkan Peninsula, and the territory of Greece in particular, is a significant biodiversity hotspot in the Mediterranean that is rich in endemic plants. The focal species of this study, Cardamine barbaraeoides, is a narrow Greek endemic that has been confused taxonomically since its original description. Based on a detailed multivariate morphometric study, we provide here a set of morphological characters that enables the reliable identification of this species. In addition, we present an identification key to C. barbaraeoides and related taxa. We have revised herbarium specimens and literature data on the occurrence of this species in Greece and ascertained that it occurs only in the Pindos mountains (the Southern Pindos and partly the Northern Pindos floristic regions). All reports of this species from the Greek floristic regions of North Central, Sterea Ellas and partly also Northern Pindos were based on misidentifications of specimens of C. acris.