Galium debile Desv.

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2024, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 17, Willdenowia 54 (1), pp. 5-45 : 32-33

Galium debile Desv.

+ Hu: Hungary: between cities of Szentendre and Pomáz N of Budapest, 47°39'36.64"N, 19°02'38.44"E, wet and somewhat saline meadow characterized by Galatella sedifolia (L.) Greuter and Iris spuria L., in flowering stage, 28 May 2023, Somlyay (BP); ibid, 47°39'35.38"N, 19°02'37.58"E, with ripe fruits, 5 Jul 2023, Somlyay (BP).

– Only a single record of this species has so far been published from the territory of present-day Hungary ( Menyhárth 1877). This record was considered erroneous by Degen (1908) and dubious by Jávorka (1924 –1925). Indeed, Menyhárth’s only known voucher from the vicinity of Kalocsa city (S Hungary) labelled as “ G. debile ” represents G. palustre L. (rev. L. Somlyay). Later, Hungarian determination keys (e.g. Soó & Kárpáti 1968; Simon 1992; Vidéki 2009) did not include G. debile , and Hungary is not covered by the distribution range of the species in the Euro+Med PlantBase (Marhold 2011+d) and POWO (2023) websites. My recent revision in the Herbarium Carpato-Pannonicum (BP), however, revealed that several Galium specimens collected in Hungary, and identified under different names by their collectors, actually belong to G. debile . They are as follows: Transdanubia (Dunántúl): Sopron, meadow at Városliget, 2 Jul 1933, Kárpáti (as G. palustre ); Pannonian plains (Alföld): Dorog, 20 Jun 1903, Jávorka (as G. palustre ×? and (duplicate) G. austriacum L.); Makó, wet meadow, 9 Jun 1902, Thaisz (as G. palustre ); Pákozd, margin of reed stand at Lake Velence, 21 Jun 1980, Felföldy (as G. uliginosum f. glabratum , revised by Bauer as G. pumilum Murray ); Pákozd, wet meadow Kerek-tói-lapos at Lake Velence, 2 Jun 2015, Bauer (as G. palustre subsp. elongatum ); Szolnok, near Tisza river, 15 Jul 1944, Timár (as G. uliginosum ). Furthermore, several old (and quite unripe) specimens from the vicinity of Buda (Budapest) may also represent G. debile . The species is assessed here as native to Hungary considering the records of G. debile scattered all over the region and covering a long period of collecting. Being very similar to G. palustre , G. debile can easily be overlooked. Moreover, sufficiently ripe fruits (a feature diagnostic for G. debile , see, e.g., Kliphuis & al. 1986) are seldom observable, due to early mowing on wet meadows in the region. L. Somlyay