Gelasia villosa (Scop.) Cass.

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2022, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 15, Willdenowia 52 (2), pp. 273-299 : 279

Gelasia villosa (Scop.) Cass. (≡ Scorzonera villosa Scop. ) – Fig. 3.

N Cm: Crimea: Sevastopol vicinity, near Balaclava, Mramornaya (marble) ravine, 44°30'27''N, 33°31'34''E, 230 m, dry grassland, 21 Jun 2010, Svirin (photo); ibid., Karan (Qaran) plateau, rocky steppe, 31 May 2014, Dyakov (photo: https://www.plantarium.ru/lang/en/page/image/id /243994.html); ibid., Gornaya height, 44°31'22.74''N, 33°32'58.06''E, 255 m, rocky steppe, 31 May 2020, Svirin (YALT; photo); ibid., 44°31'22.45''N, 33°33'0.25''E, 270 m, trampled steppe on terra rossa, 31 May 2020, Yevseyenkov (photo); ibid., 44°31'21.05''N, 33°33'06.01''E, 260 m, rocky steppe, 21 Jun 2020, Svirin (YALT; photo); ibid., Mramornaya ravine, 44°30'27.32''N, 33°31'34.36''E, 230 m, wasteland, 26 Jun 2020, Svirin (YALT; photo). – Gelasia Cass. is new for the flora of Crimea, and G. villosa is a new species for E Europe. Three species are recorded for E Europe: G. biebersteinii (Lipsch.) Zaika & al., G. ensifolia (M. Bieb.) Zaika & al. and G. tuberosa (Pall.) Zaika & al. ( Zaika & al. 2020). None of them is reported from Crimea. Gelasia villosa is native from Italy to the NW Balkan Peninsula. It includes two subspecies: G. villosa subsp. villosa and G. villosa subsp. columnae (Guss.) Bartolucci & al. The typical subspecies is widespread in SE and NE Italy and the NW Balkan Peninsula, while subsp. columnae is distributed in C and S Italy and Sicily ( Greuter 2006 +; Flora Italiana 2022; POWO 2022e). Naturalization or accidental introduction of G. villosa to other regions is unknown; it is not marked as a weed and is not characterized by invasive behaviour ( Randall 2017). Therefore, its recent finding in Crimea was quite unexpected. For the first time, G. villosa was found and photographed by one of us (S.S.) in the Sevastopol region on the slopes of the Mramornaya ravine on 21 Jun 2010, but then the species was not identified. On 31 May 2014, Nikolai Dyakov photographed a similar plant nearby, on the Karan plateau, and posted the picture on the Plantarium (2007 –2022) website. However, the diagnostic features of the plant were not visible on the photo, so its identification was impossible. Six years later, a new locality was found by two of us (S.S. and P.Y.) a few kilometres north of the two first ones, on the Gornaya height. The differences between the two subspecies of G. villosa are inconspicuous: G. villosa subsp. villosa has fully scabrid pappus bristles, while G. villosa subsp. columnae has plumose ones at least at the base ( Lipschitz 1939; Tutin & al. 1976). Crimean plants are characterized by the following morphological features: leaves scarcely callose at apex; phyllaries, especially the outer ones, subulate pointed with outward-curved tips; achenes 10–11 mm long, with more or less smooth ribs in the lower 1/3–1/2, and spinulose-dentate to acutely lamellate ribs in the upper part with hairs near the apex; pappus bristles plumose at the base with lateral projections c. 1 mm long, distally scabrid with projections c. 0.1 mm long. It is not yet possible to attribute the Crimean specimens to one of the subspecies with certainty. This requires further research, in particular, a detailed comparison with plants from Italy and the Balkan Peninsula, primarily with the recently designated types of G. villosa subsp. villosa and subsp. columnae ( Bartolucci & al. 2020). In Crimea, G. villosa is a dominant element of dry grassland, including the submediterranean variant of rocky Festuco-Brometea steppes on relict carbonate terra rossa soils. It grows in natural and seminatural habitats, and is perhaps a native plant in Crimea. However, the significant disjunction of the range indicates that the species is most likely an alien there. Presumably it was brought from Italy with forage during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, like some other species of the Sevastopol flora that are otherwise rare in E Europe. In the vicinity of Balaclava, G. villosa has become completely naturalized and is prone to invade moderately disturbed sites.

L. E. Ryff, S. A. Svirin & P. E. Yevseyenkov