Orobanche variegata Wallr.

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2024, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 17, Willdenowia 54 (1), pp. 5-45 : 27

Orobanche variegata Wallr.

? Al: Orobanche variegata was reported for Albania by Shuka & Tan (2019) from various locations. However, the plant depicted in the published photograph is to be identified rather as O. gracilis Sm. Orobanche variegata is always a larger plant, often producing more than one stem, while its corolla is almost always uniformly dark red in the upper 3/4–4/5 without any yellow colour in its upper part. Moreover, the lower corolla lobe is usually larger and the thorat margins are less denticulate to subentire. Frequent misidentification of O. gracilis as O. variegata in the past lead to an alleged excessively broad distribution range of the latter taxon. Indeed, rare individuals of O. gracilis that are both robust and display an almost entirely red corolla may pose some uncertainty of identification. The same is true for single individuals with all-yellow corollas. Notwithstanding, O. variegata is a species belonging to the SW Mediterranean chorotype occurring from Morocco to Tunisia in NW Africa and having its easternmost populations in Sicily and northernmost ones in Sardinia ( Sánchez Pedraja & al. 2016). In this light, it seems unlikely that O. variegata could be found also in the Balkans. The record published by Shuka & Tan (2019) could have been premature, because, according to what was written in their note, it is possible that Rätzel and Uhlich identified only one photograph, and the authors then seem to have extended this one provision to all their material. V. Lazzeri