Hieracium stanislai Szeląg, 2025

Szeląg, Zbigniew, 2025, Two new species in Hieracium sect. Umbrosa (Asteraceae) from Mt. Babia Góra, Western Carpathians, Poland, Phytotaxa 684 (2), pp. 283-288 : 283-285

Hieracium stanislai Szeląg , sp. nov. ( Figs. 1–4 )

Type: ― POLAND. Western Carpathians , above the Markowe Szczawiny shelter, Picea abies forest along a tourist path to the Brona pass, 1190 m a.s.l., 17 July 2020, Z. Szeląg (holotype KRAM; isotypes Herb. Hierac. Z. Szeląg) .

Paratypes: ― POLAND. Western Carpathians, Mt. Babia Góra massif, above the Markowe Szczawiny shelter, Picea abies forest along a tourist path to the Brona pass, 1190 m a.s.l., originally found on 17 July 2020, specimens from plants transferred from the type locality to the author’s garden, pressed on 5 June 2022, Z. Szeląg (Herb. Hierac. Z. Szeląg).

Description: ―Phyllopodous.Stem robust 25–65 cm high, in lower third with dense, pale, up to 5 mm long simple hairs; in the middle with sparse, pale, 1–2 mm long simple hairs, sparse stellate hairs, and with scattered pale microglands; in upper third with numerous or subdense stellate hairs and numerous black glandular hairs 0.3–0.5 mm long. Rosette leaves 3–6; outer leaves (usually withered at anthesis) obovate, subentire or remotely denticulate, rounded at apex; inner leaves oblong-lanceolate, subacute at apex, dentate to serrate at base, up to 15 cm long and up to 5 cm wide, cuneate at base and gradually tapered to a long, winged petiole covered by dense, up to 5 mm long simple hairs, mixed pale microglands and with few stellate hairs. Cauline leaves 3–7, gradually reduced in size upwards, with especially dense simple hairs at the base of the petioles. Lowest cauline leaf in shape and size similar to inner rosette leaves; other cauline leaves sessile and semi-amplexicaul, oblanceolate and acute at apex. All leaves on the upper surface grassgreen with sparse, pale simple hairs up to 1 mm long, on margins with ±numerous up to 1.5 mm long, pale, simple hairs; on the lower surface light-green with sparse, pale simple hairs up to 1.5 mm long, on midrib with pale, numerous to dense, up to 2.5 mm long simple hairs and scattered stellate hairs. The 2–4 uppermost cauline leaves aristate, on the lower surface with dense stellate hairs. Synflorescence with 5–25 capitula. Synflorescence branches 2–5, up to 10 cm long in axils of upper cauline leaves. Acladium up to 1 cm long. Peduncles thin, erect, with dense stellate hairs, and dense, black glandular hairs 0.3–0.5 mm long (without simple hairs). Bracteoles 1–2, grey-green with dense stellate hairs, dense glandular hairs, and occasional single dark-based, simple hairs. Involucres campanulate, 8–9 mm long. Involucral bracts in three rows, lanceolate, acute at apex, up to 1.2 mm wide at base, dark green to blackish green (inner bracts green with pale margins) with dense black glandular hairs up to 1 mm long, and numerous stellate hairs along margins. Ligules yellow, with cilia at apex. Styles dirty-yellow with dense, black microtrichomes. Achenes brown, 3.1–3.3 mm long. Pappus pale grey. Pollen in anthers numerous, mostly regular. Flowering: July and beginning of August.

Chromosome number and mode of reproduction: —2n = 4x = 36, agamospermous ( Musiał et al. 2024, as Hieracium umbrosum agg. no. 2).

Affinity: ― Hieracium stanislai is similar morphologically to H. crepidifolium Arvet-Touvet (1888: 89) from the Alps, but differs in its less dentate or subentire leaves, more amplexicaul cauline leaves, and densely hairy stem at the base of the petioles.

Distribution and habitat: —Endemic to the Babia Góra massif in the Western Carpathians, known only from the Polish side of the mountains ( Fig. 4 ). In 2024, the population of H. stanislai comprised less than a hundred plants, mostly vegetative with only a few flowering plants, growing in two clusters along a tourist path from the Markowe Szczawiny shelter to the Brona pass, in the Picea abies forest, at 1190 m a.s.l. (locus classicus) and at 1200 m a.s.l. A dozen of plants also grow on the spruce forest margin, about 30 meters west of the shelter, at 1180 m a.s.l.

Etymology: —The species epithet honours M. Sc. Stanisław Szafraniec from Skawica, entomologist, an expert in the Polish Coleoptera, my friend and trusted companion in field studies on Mt. Babia Góra.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Holotype of Hieracium stanislai (KRAM).

FIGURE 2. Involucres of Hieracium stanislai (left) and H. walasii (right) (from holotypes).

FIGURE 3. Hieracium stanislai (left) and H. walasii (right) in the type localities.

FIGURE 4. Distribution of Hieracium stanislai (red dots) and H. walasii (yellow dots) on Mt. Babia Góra.