Amaranthus caudatus

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2022, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 15, Willdenowia 52 (2), pp. 273-299 : 274

Amaranthus caudatus L.

A Ly: Libya: Cyrenaica, El Hamrah, 15 Dec 1873, Ascherson 2064 (M 0241385). – According to Iamonico (2015a +), Amaranthus caudatus occurs in N Africa in Morocco, Algeria and Egypt. The species was not cited for Libya in any of the national floras published from the first Florae libycae prodromus by Durand & Barratte (1910) to The flora of Libya by Boulos (1977). Furthermore, no citation of the species is reported for Libya by Alzerbi & al. (2020) in their list of introduced species for the country. Also, Dobignard & al. (2011) and POWO (2022b) did not cite any references to Libya for A. caudatus . The specimen found at M refers to a collection by P. Ascherson made in Cyrenaica as part of Rohlfs’s Expedition in die Lybische Wüste as reported on the original label (see https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.m0241385). Notably Pampanini (1931), who studied the flora of Cyrenaica, did not record A. caudatus for this Libyan region. All sources considered, the M specimen indicates the occurrence, at least in the 19 th century, of A. caudatus in Libya. The species is native to South America ( Bayón 2015) and can be considered a casual alien in Libya. D. Iamonico