Limonium

A new endemic Limonium View in CoL species in SE Crete

During the fieldwork in summer of 2014, an impressive population of Limonium was found in SE Crete, in the area between Myrtos and Tertsa, comprising tall plants up to 110 cm, bearing large, broadly spathulate rosette leaves ( Fig. 5 View Fig ). Resembling L. hierapetrae in terms of habit and inflorescence, its leaves are of a different shape, resembling more those of L. cornarianum ( Fig. 4 A, B View Fig ). However, plants of such height and with leaves of such size found in that population are unique among the Limonium species in Greece belonging to the “ Mediterranean lineage”, i.e. all Greek Limonium species apart from eight belonging to the morphologically and phylogenetically distinct L. sect. Limonium ( L. vulgare group), L. sect. Nephrophyllum Rech. f. s.l. and L. sect. Pterocladus (Spach) Bokhari ( Koutroumpa & al. 2018). Three representatives sampled in a phylogenomic study formed a well-supported monophyletic group in close evolutionary relationship with L. cornarianum and L. hierapetrae but clearly distinct from them ( Koutroumpa 2020). Apart from the large population found during the fieldwork, a careful study of previously collected herbarium specimens revealed that material collected from Cape Theophilos (Brullo & Giusso s.n., herb. Erben) at the E edge of Sidonia beach, which is located to the W of Tertsa, also belong to the new species. In addition, plants grown from seeds of the Cape Theophilos collection were studied karyologically by M. Erben (Li-1721) who counted the pentaploid chromosome number 2 n = 43 in a cultivated individual (voucher deposited in FR [FR-0128957]). The pentaploid chromosome number of the new species agrees with the preliminary flow cytometric analysis of material collected from Vatos and Kallikovrechtis, two localities between Myrtos and Tertsa. Specifically, the 1 C genome size of the new species is 3.67–3.69 pg, which is comparable to the genome size of the pentaploid (2 n = 43) L. sitiacum (1 C = 3.52 pg) but larger than the genome sizes of the tetraploid (2 n = 34) L. aegaeum (1 C = 3.15 pg) and the triploid (2 n = 27) L. virgatum (1 C = 2.61 pg) and smaller than the genome size of the hexaploid L. creticum (1 C = c. 4 pg; this an approximate count because this genome size was partially overlapping with the Pisum sativum reference genome, 1 C = 4.42 pg). In the Taxonomic treatment below, the new species is described and compared with the closely related L. cornarianum and L. hierapetrae , for which emended species descriptions are provided based on the plethora of material seen and examined, including the type specimens.