Chenopodium pratericola Rydb.

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2024, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 17, Willdenowia 54 (1), pp. 5-45 : 14

Chenopodium pratericola Rydb.

A Cm: Crimea: Simferopol, food market Privoz , roadside, 27 Dec 2022, Yena ( CSAU); Simferopolsky Rayon, Perovo Village, vicinity of Yuzhnaya poultry farm, 29 Sep 2022, Oleshko (CSAU).

– This species is native to North America but as an alien plant spread to Europe, Asia, and South America (GBIF 2023). In the European area, C. pratericola is known from N, C and E Europe (Uotila 2011+a) reaching S as far as Bulgaria ( Grozeva 2012) and the Ukraine ( Mosyakin & al. 1994). For Crimea, C. pratericola is given here for the first time. The whole plant has a narrowly conic or fusiform habit. From the 17 species of Chenopodium s.l. that occur in the Crimean Peninsula ( Yena 2012), C. pratericola is well distinguished by its markedly small (up to 17 mm long), lanceolate (length: width ratio (3–)4: 1), toothless leaves, pointed at the tip and wedge-shaped at the base, tapering into a petiole. One of the most distinctive features of this species is its venation pattern: the leaf is 3-veined from the base, lateral veins are arcuate and twice as short as the midrib (on very small leaves the lateral veins may be faint or sometimes absent). The upper leaf surface is smooth, the lower surface as well as the calyx and petioles are moderately to densely white mealy. The pericarp peels off easily, the flattened, round and nearly keeled, shiny black seeds reach 1–1.3 mm in diam. In general, all morphological characters correspond well to those given in the literature ( Mosyakin 1996; Clemants & Mosyakin 2003; Sukhorukov 2014). It seems no coincidence that the pioneering findings of C. pratericola in Crimea were made in areas where active transportation of food and feed occurs. The further fate of this ephemerophyte will be traced in the area. A. V. Yena