Holcus pintodasilvae (Poaceae, Pooideae, Poeae), a new species from the Island of Madeira (Portugal), and notes on Macaronesian Holcus

• Autor(a) principal: Sequeira, Miguel Menezes de
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Castroviejo, Santiago
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/4206
• topic: Grtamineae; Holcus; IUCN; Red List; Macaronesia; Madeira (Portugal); Poaceae; Portugal; .; Faculdade de Ciências da Vida

A new species of Holcus L. (Poaceae), endemic to the island of Madeira (Portugal), is here described as H. pintodasilvae M. Seq. & Castrov. This new species is morphologically closely related to the Macaronesian endemics H. rigidus Hochst. ex Hochst. (Azores Archipelago) and H. mollis L. subsp. hierrensis Stierst. (El Hierro Island, in the Canary Islands) but differs by having the culm nodes light brown, the leaves with a glabrous sheath and subspreading lamina attenuated to an acuminate apex, the glumes blunt, shiny, glabrous (except in the minutely scabrous veins), the upper glume with proximal lateral veins, and the lemma of the upper floret with an awn ca. 4 mm, twice as long as the lemma. Chromosome counts in H. pintodasilvae are tetraploid (2 n = 28). Morphology, ecology, biogeog raphy, and conservation issues are discussed and related to other Macaronesian Holcus taxa. Holcus (totaling less than 20 individuals), and its IUCN conservation status is Critically Endangered (CR). A new specific status is proposed for H. mollis subsp. hierrensis, as H. hierrensis (Stierst.) Stierst. & M. Seq., based on its chromosome number and morphological identity.