Chenopodium striatiforme Murr

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2025, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 18, Willdenowia 55 (1), pp. 107-144 : 113

Chenopodium striatiforme Murr (= C. album subsp. microphyllum (Boenn.) Sterner )

+ Al: Albania: Prefecture of Shkodër, Municipality of Velipojë, Franciscan monastery of Velipojë, 41°52'22"N, 19°23'53"E, 2 m, eggplant ( Solanum melongena L.) plantation in irrigated convent garden, 26 Oct 2024, Raus 35191 (B). – There are no previously published records from Albania. The species is probably more widespread throughout the country, preferring irrigated agricultural and horticultural habitats, in continuation of its ample distribution range in mainland Greece ( Strid 2024: 582, map 2326). Named more than a hundred years ago as a taxon in the Chenopodium album group that is not identical to C. album L. s. str. ( Murr 1901), C. striatiforme fell into oblivion and was not accepted and keyed out in Flora europaea but merely included either in C. album ( Brenan 1964: 94, 439) or C. betaceum ( Akeroyd 1993: 114, misapplied under C. strictum ). Aellen (1960: 651, under C. album var. microphyllum Boenn. ) called it “one of the most distinctive morphological and ecological varieties in our region, representing, as it were, a C. album that has been reduced in size in all parts”. It was only reintroduced into European floristics as a species native to C, NE and SE Europe by Uotila (1977, 2001: 24, 2011 +; see also Hand & al. 2024), recognizable, among other morphological discontinuities, mainly by its small, 2–2.5 cm long, triangular-rhombic, apically obtuse lower stem leaves (vs 5–7 cm long, broadly ovate-lanceolate and apically acute in C. album ). In the Velipojë plain of N Albania, C. striatiforme and C. album occur sympatrically (the latter, e.g., in ruderal places along Velipojë seafront, 41°51'42"N, 19°25'41"E, 1 m, 22 Oct 2024, Raus obs.).

Th. Raus