Loeflingia hispanica

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2024, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 17, Willdenowia 54 (1), pp. 5-45 : 13

Loeflingia hispanica L.

? It: Italy: Campania, “Presa nei contorni di Napoli ed alla Cava”, s.d. [de facto first half of 19 th century], s.c., s.n. (RO [herb. Borgia]).

– Loeflingia hispanica is native to a wide area from the Canary Islands to the Mediterranean area, SW Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, according to POWO (2023); the record from Italy seems based on Heywood (1993: 153) who, however, recorded the species in Sicily. In fact, both Marhold (2011+a) and the Portale della flora d’Italia ( PFI 2023) indicated L. hispanica in Sicily only. Nevertheless, it was already given by Cortesi (1906) for the surroundings of Naples and Cava de’ Tirreni (province of Salerno), both localities in the region of Campania (SW Italy), based on the specimen cited above. This specimen consists of three flowering plants with a single label. Cesare Borgia (1776–1837) was an influential nobleman of the Papal State and a learned naturalist who intensively collected plants especially in Sicily and Campania ( Cortesi 1906a, 1906b). It is to be noted that, according to Guadagno (1926), the indications from Campania might be due to a misplacing in the herbarium; however, both “ Loeflingia hispanica ” and the gathering places were handwritten by Borgia on the same label. On the other hand, L. hispanica is a rare and localized species of sandy meadows in Sicily ( Giardina & al. 2007); this habitat is hardly compatible with the two localities of Campania, even at that time. In addition, no one else has noticed this plant in the region. This casts into doubt that the examined herbarium sheet might refer to cultivated or escaped individuals. In fact, the plant was rarely cultivated in the botanical gardens of the region, as recorded by Tenore (1809) from the erstwhile Garden of the Prince of Bisignano in Barra, from where a specimen is preserved in the herbarium of Giovanni Gussone (NAP0002244), a correspondent of Borgia himself ( Cortesi 1906a). In addition, many samples of the herbarium Borgia derived from cultivated plants, frequently from the gardens of Cava de’ Tirreni (including his own garden) and Catania (Sicily) (see Cortesi 1906a), normally without any note on the labels appropriate to clarify the possibly native status of the gathered plants. D. Iamonico & E. Del Guacchio