Amaranthus emarginatus subsp. pseudogracilis (Thell.) Hügin

Raus, Thomas, 2022, Taxonomic, nomenclatural and floristic review of Amaranthaceae of Greece and neighbouring countries, Willdenowia 52 (3), pp. 335-357 : 343

11b. Amaranthus emarginatus subsp. pseudogracilis (Thell.) Hügin in Willdenowia 16: 463. 1987 ≡ Amaranthus lividus subvar. pseudogracilis Thell. in Ascherson & Graebner, Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 5 (1. Abt.): 321. 1914 ≡ Amaranthus blitum var. pseudogracilis (Thell.) Lambinon in Bull. Soc. Échange Pl. Vasc. Eur. Occid. Médit. 24: 55. 1993 ≡ Amaranthus pseudogracilis (Thell.) G. H. Loos in Online-Veröff. Bochumer Bot. Ver. 2: 4. 2010 ≡ Amaranthus blitum subsp. pseudogracilis (Thell.) N. Bayón in Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 101: 312. 2015 ≡ Amaranthus emarginatus var. pseudogracilis (Thell.) Iamonico in Pl. Biosyst. 150: 532. 2016. – Holotype (identified by S. Bernhard & R. Vogt, 12 Feb 2020, in sched., superseding the lectotype designated by Iamonico 2016a: 523): Europe, Germany, Elsass-Lothringen, im Botanischen Garten Strassburg, 8 Aug 1904, Ludwig 12130 (B B100261513).

Remarks — This is a pantropical element, introduced to North America and Europe ( Bayón 2015: 312, 2020: 51). The subspecies is a casual alien of irrigated gardens and vegetable fields (of melons, cucurbits etc.) as well as moist ruderal places in Greece, with a status of naturalization unknown so far ( Raus & Svensson 2017). Recently found as common in Chalandri, a suburban area of Athens ( Polymenakos & Tan 2016), it is certainly undercollected, and the actual distribution may be much wider than the present data indicate. The epithet pseudogracilis refers to the usually well-developed lateral and terminal, spike-like inflorescences, which resemble those of Amaranthus viridis L. The latter species was traditionally treated under its unresolved synonym A. gracilis in previous floristic sources ( Iamonico 2016b) but clearly differs on its apically obtuse, not or scarcely emarginate leaves and strongly wrinkled fruits. It should be noted that Iamonico (2016a: 523) allocated a wrong type locality (“Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Strasburg”) to the lectotype, designated by him, of A. emarginatus var. pseudogracilis , induced by Costea & al. (2001b: 981), who unfortunately copied the type locality from the label of the holotype in B with the incomplete spelling “Strasburg” (instead of Strassburg); the mistake was further distributed in literature ( Iamonico 2015b: 32; Bayón 2015: 312, 2020: 51). The collector of the type material, the German botanist Alfred Ludwig (see Schumacher 1967), lived and collected from 1899 to 1906 in Strassburg (Strassburg) im Elsass (what is today Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France) but not in Strasburg in der Uckermark (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany) where a Botanic Garden was never situated.