Stipa baktashevae, a new synonym of Stipa borysthenica (Poaceae)

Numerical analyses of macromorphological characters of specimens of S. lessingiana, S. borysthenica and S. baktashevae, nested the last one among individuals of S. borysthenica. We propose synonymization of S. baktashevae, the species described in 2014 and known only from type material, with S. borysthenica, and provide morphological comparisons of the taxa

Effect of Rudbeckia laciniata invasion on soil seed banks of different types of meadow communities

In the last decades, biological invasions become the main driver of biodiversity loss. The changes can be noticed not only in the above-ground diversity but also in the underground, including seed banks of native vegetation. In this study, we focus on Rudbeckia laciniata, a species introduced to many European and Asian countries, to characterize its soil seed bank as well as to answer the question, how the species influenced soil seed banks of meadow plant communities in two types of habitats (fresh and wet), where traditional mowing was abandoned. Within the habitats, we conducted our study on a three-step scale of invasion, from full invasion, through the transition zone to the control zone, where no invasion of the species has been observed so far. The majority of the R. laciniata seeds were located in the surface layer of soil. We detected, that 47% (in fresh meadow) and 56% (wet meadow) of recorded species occurred only in a soil seed bank, and were absent in aboveground vegetation. Emergence of native plants from the soil seed bank is low due to rapid shading of the soil surface by R. laciniata seedlings. However, a short-term seed bank of the species gives hope that returning to regular mowing brings the desired results in its the elimination from vegetation, in a fairly short time

New localities of Rosa gallica (Rosaceae) in Southern Poland

The paper presents new records for rare and endangered species - Rosa gallica L. from southern Poland. At each of the new stations french rose occupies secondary, anthropogenic habitats. Distribution map and habitat preferences of the studied species are provided

A new locality of Veronica triloba (Scrophulariaceae) in Poland

A new locality Veronica triloba (Opiz) Kern was found in the Nida Basin (southern Poland) in 2007. The locality is situated near Kalina village (ATPOL grid square: EF 31). The plant occurs there as a weed in arable field and in the baulks between fields neighbouring dry grasslands protected as Special Area of Conservation (SACs) called Kalina-Lisiniec established under NATURA 2000. The modified distribution map of V. triloba in Poland is presented

A new record of Typha shuttleworthii (Typhaceae) in Poland

The paper presents a new locality of Typha shuttleworthii W.D.J. Koch & Sond. in Poland. The species was found in wet roadside ditch in Kryg village near Gorlice (ATPOL grid square EG09). The distribution map of the species in Poland is provided

A new record of Arabis recta Vill. (Brassicaceae) from Poland

Arabis recta Vill. is a therophyte currently considered to be endangered in Poland (EN category). The species has been reported from ca. 20 localities situated mainly in the Nida Basin (southeastern Poland). Arabis recta is usually a component of xero-thermophile grasslands, but it can also grow in arable fields or fallows. An abundant population of A. recta was found on slopes of the Góra Sosnówka hill (Małopolska Upland) in 2017. This newly discovered locality is currently the northernmost in Poland. The distribution of A. recta in Poland as well as collected phytosociological documentation are presented

Predicting the potential distribution area of Solidago ×niederederi (Asteraceae)

In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential distribution area of Solidago ×niederederi, a natural hybrid between North American S. canadensis and European S. virgaurea, in Central and East Europe using the MAXENT modeling approach. The final MAXENT model was constructed based on 83 occurrence records from Austria, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia and six abiotic environmental variables. The jackknife test revealed that annual temperature range, mean temperature of wettest quarter, and minimum temperature of coldest month had the highest gain for the training and test data when used alone, whereas precipitation seasonality, precipitation of coldest quarter, and precipitation of warmest quarter reduced the gain the most when excluded from the model and thus contributed the most information not presented with the other variables. A high probability of occurrence (>0.6) for S. ×niederederi was found in 12 countries, namely Austria, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast), Slovenia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Our results showed in which areas the hybrid may be established under the European temperate climatic conditions; however, we do not indicate which areas exactly may be under invasion by the hybrid because such a statement needs population dynamic data for proper investigation. To prevent the negative impact of S. ×niederederi on native S. virgaurea (i.e. competition for pollinators and introgression) we suggest that it should be controlled first in areas of high probability of occurrence, especially in Lithuania, Kaliningrad Oblast, Slovakia, Poland, and Austria, where the areas of high probability of hybrid occurrence account for more than 5% of the territory concerned

Plastid super-barcodes as a tool for species discrimination in feather grasses (Poaceae: Stipa)

Abstract Present study was designed to verify which or if any of plastome loci is a hotspot region for mutations and hence might be useful for molecular species identification in feather grasses. 21 newly sequenced complete plastid genomes representing 19 taxa from the genus of Stipa were analyzed in search of the most variable and the most discriminative loci within Stipa. The results showed that the problem with selecting a good barcode locus for feather grasses lies in the very low level of genetic diversity within its plastome. None of the single chloroplast loci is polymorphic enough to play a role of a barcode or a phylogenetic marker for Stipa. The biggest number of taxa was successfully identified by the analysis of 600 bp long DNA fragment comprising a part of rbcL gene, the complete rbcL-rpl23 spacer and a part of rpl23 gene. The effectiveness of multi-locus barcode composed of six best-performing loci for Stipa (ndhH, rpl23, ndhF-rpl32, rpl32-ccsA, psbK-psbI and petA-psbJ) didn’t reach 70% of analyzed taxa. The analysis of complete plastome sequences as a super-barcode for Stipa although much more effective, still didn’t allow for discrimination of all the analyzed taxa of feather grasses