Research Article
Print
Research Article
Chromosome numbers for the Italian flora: 12
expand article infoGiovanni Astuti‡, Fabrizio Bartolucci§, Fabio Conti§, Beatrice Cera|, Antonio Giacò‡, Simone Orsenigo|, Luca Sandroni‡, Lorenzo Peruzzi‡
‡ Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
§ Università di Camerino, Camerino, Italy
| Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy

Corresponding author: Giovanni Astuti ( giovanni.astuti@unipi.it )

Academic editor: Gianniantonio Domina
© 2021 Giovanni Astuti, Fabrizio Bartolucci, Fabio Conti, Beatrice Cera, Antonio Giacò, Simone Orsenigo, Luca Sandroni, Lorenzo Peruzzi.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Astuti G, Bartolucci F, Conti F, Cera B, Giacò A, Orsenigo S, Sandroni L, Peruzzi L (2021) Chromosome numbers for the Italian flora: 12. Italian Botanist 12: 123-131. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.12.79031
Open Access

Abstract

In this contribution, new chromosome data obtained on material collected in Italy are presented. It includes the first counts for Hieracium glanduliferum s.str. and H. tenuiflorum, counts for two Armeria species endemic to Italy, and for Onopordum illyricum subsp. illyricum. We also present here the first chromosome count of Allium permixtum for Italy, where this species is known for few localities.

Keywords

Amaryllidaceae, Asteraceae, cytotaxonomy, endemics, Plumbaginaceae, polyploidy

How to contribute

Texts concerning new chromosome data should be submitted electronically to Giovanni Astuti (giovanni.astuti@unipi.it), including indications on voucher specimens and methods used.

Chromosome counts

Allium permixtum Guss. (Amaryllidaceae)

Chromosome number

2n = 24 (Fig. 1).

Voucher specimen

Italy. Abruzzo. Rocca di Cambio (L’Aquila), Monte Ocre, vallone Canavine conca di Settacque, prati umidi, 1570 m (WGS84: 42.2471477N, 13.442932E), 22 June 2005, F. Conti, F. Bartolucci, L. Bernardo, D. Iamonico, M. Latini, I. Londrillo, R. Lorenzetti, N. Ranalli, E. Pellegrini, L. Peruzzi, N. Ranalli, E. Scassellati, D. Tinti, V. Viscosi (APP15719, APP15721).

Method

Squash preparations were made on root tips obtained from cultivated plants. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 4 h and then fixed in Carnoy solution for 1 h. After hydrolysis in 1N HCl at 60 °C, the tips were stained with leuco-basic fuchsine.

Observations

Allium permixtum occurs in Italy and the Balkan Peninsula (Anderson 1991; Conti 1995; Cheshmedzhiev and Marinov 2009; Brullo et al. 2010; Hallaçi and Shuka 2013; Bartolucci et al. 2018). In Italy, this species was not recently confirmed in Sicily (Brullo et al. 2010) and is very rare in Abruzzo, where it has been recorded only for some protected areas of the central Apennines, such as the National Park of Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga (Conti 1998; Conti and Bartolucci 2016) and the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise (Conti 1995; Conti and Bartolucci 2015). The population studied here represents the first record for the Regional Park of Sirente-Velino (Abruzzo, central Italy). This is also the first chromosome count for the species in Italy (Bedini and Peruzzi 2021 onwards), and it agrees with previous counts made for Greece and Bulgaria where both diploid and triploid cytotypes have been reported (2n = 2x = 16, 2n = 3x = 24) (Tzanoudakis 1982, 1986; Cheshmedzhiev and Marinov 2009, in both sources under the name A. phthioticum).

F. Bartolucci, F. Conti

Figure 1. 

Allium permixtum Guss. from Monte Ocre (Rocca di Cambio, L’Aquila), 2n = 24. Scale bar: 10 μm.

Armeria denticulata (Bertol.) DC. (Plumbaginaceae)

Chromosome number

2n = 18 (Fig. 2).

Voucher specimens

Italy. Liguria. Sarzana (La Spezia), nei pressi del castello della Brina (WGS84: 44.14732N, 9.95068E), 11 June 2021, L. Sandroni (PI049856–PI049876). Toscana. Rosignano Marittimo (Livorno), Poggio Pelato (WGS84: 43.43525N, 10.43103E), 25 May 2021, L. Sandroni & G. Astuti (PI049924–PI049948); Prato, Monteferrato (WGS84: 43.92042N, 11.07572E), 9 June 2021, L. Sandroni (PI049902–PI049923).

Method

Squash preparations were made on root tips obtained from germinating seeds. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 3 hours and then fixed in Carnoy fixative solution for 1 hour. After hydrolysis in HCl 1N at 60 °C, the tips were stained in leuco-basic fuchsine for 7–8 minutes.

Observations

This species is endemic to ophiolitic substrates of western Liguria and Toscana (Arrigoni 2015). The type locality of this species is in Liguria, but very close to the border with Toscana, where the vast majority of populations is found. We report here three counts, one obtained from plants collected in the type locality and two from elsewhere in Toscana. These data confirm the 2n = 18 chromosome number reported for Impruneta, Firenze (Arrigoni et al. 1976, 1980). This is also the only known number for the entire genus (Rice et al. 2014+).

Figure 2. 

Armeria denticulata (Bertol.) DC. from (a) Castello della Brina (Sarzana, La Spezia), (b) Poggio Pelato (Rosignano, Livorno), and (c) Monteferrato (Prato), 2n = 18. Scale bar: 10 μm.

Armeria saviana Selvi (Plumbaginaceae)

Chromosome number

2n = 18 (Fig. 3).

Voucher specimen

Italy. Toscana. Arcidosso (Grosseto), Stribugliano, lungo la Via del Campo Sportivo (WGS84: 42.85868N, 11.47165E), 28 May 2021, L. Sandroni & G. Astuti (PI049882–PI049886).

Method

Squash preparations were made on root tips obtained from germinating seeds. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 3 hours and then fixed in Carnoy fixative solution for 1 hour. After hydrolysis in HCl 1N at 60 °C, the tips were stained in leuco-basic fuchsine for 7–8 minutes.

Observations

This species is endemic to southern Toscana, and has been only recently described (Selvi 2009). It shows a very narrow distribution range on the surroundings of Monte Labbro (Grosseto). Armeria saviana is morphologically very similar to A. denticulata, from which it can be distinguished for a few leaf and inflorescence features. The chromosome count reported here confirms the previous count published by Selvi (2009).

L. Sandroni, G. Astuti, L. Peruzzi

Figure 3. 

Armeria saviana Selvi from Stribugliano (Arcidosso, Grosseto), 2n = 18. Scale bar: 10 μm.

Hieracium glanduliferum Hoppe subsp. glanduliferum (Asteraceae)

Chromosome number

2n = 27 (Fig. 4).

Voucher specimen

Italy. Emilia-Romagna. Ventasso (Reggio Emilia), Monte Prado (WGS84 44.252477N, 10.400372E), tra la sella e la vetta del Monte Prado, 1980 m, 25 July 2019, S. Orsenigo (PAV).

Method

Squash preparations were made on root tips obtained from germinating seeds. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 3 hours and then fixed in Carnoy fixative solution for 1 hour. After hydrolysis in HCl 1N at 60 °C, the tips were stained in leuco-basic fuchsine for 7–8 minutes.

Observations

Hieracium glanduliferum subsp. glanduliferum is a south European alpine species with isolated populations that occur in the northern Apennines on Monte Prado, Monte Cusna, and Monte Cimone (Foggi and Ricceri 1989; Gottschlich 2018). This is the first count for this taxon for Italy, whereas other counts have been published for Hieracium glanduliferum Hoppe subsp. piliferum Hoppe ex Nägeli & Peter, for which two different chromosome numbers have been reported so far, 2n = 3x = 27 from Italy, Switzerland, and Austria (Scholte 1977; Chrtek et al. 2009) and 2n = 4x = 36 from Austria and Slovakia (Mráz 2003; Chrtek et al. 2009, in all sources under the name Hieracium piliferum Hoppe).

S. Orsenigo, A. Giacò, G. Astuti

Figure 4. 

Hieracium glanduliferum Hoppe subsp. glanduliferum from Monte Prado (Ventasso, Reggio Emilia), 2n = 27. Scale bar: 10 μm.

Hieracium tenuiflorum Arv.-Touv. (Asteraceae)

Chromosome number

2n = 27 (Fig. 5).

Voucher specimen

Italy. Liguria. Sanremo (Imperia), San Romolo (WGS84 43.84670N, 7.740880E), pendici del Monte Bignone, margine della strada verso Sanremo, 570 m, 28 May 2021, M. Ottonello, B. Cera, S. Orsenigo (PAV).

Method

Squash preparations were made on root tips obtained from germinating seeds. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 3 hours and then fixed in Carnoy fixative solution for 1 hour. After hydrolysis in HCl 1N at 60 °C, the tips were stained in leuco-basic fuchsine for 7–8 minutes.

Observations

Hieracium tenuiflorum is a south European perennial species (Gottschlich 2018). It was originally described for Monte Bignone, Monte Ceppo, and Monte Arpetta (Bicknell 1896), in the Ligurian Alps. In Italy, this species is widespread throughout the Alps and pre-Alps, but it occurs also in the northern and central Apennines south up to Abruzzo (Bartolucci et al. 2018).

The chromosome number 2n = 3x = 27, reported here for the first time, is consistent with observations made in other taxa belonging to H. sect. Hieracium, such as those of the H. murorum aggregate in Italy (Selvi and Fiorini 1996; Geraci et al. 2007) and Europe (Chrtek et al. 2009).

S. Orsenigo, B. Cera, A. Giacò

Figure 5. 

Hieracium tenuiflorum Arv.-Touv. from San Romolo (Sanremo, Imperia), 2n = 27. Scale bar: 10 μm.

Onopordum illyricum L. subsp. illyricum (Asteraceae)

Chromosome number

2n = 34 (Fig. 6).

Voucher specimen

Italy. Calabria. San Marco Argentano (Cosenza), c.da Rossillo (WGS84: 39.61343N, 16.22801E), 16 August 2021, L. Peruzzi (seeds collected and deposited at the germplasm bank of the Department of Biology, University of Pisa; IPEN: IT-0-PI-2021-0419).

Method

Squash preparations were made on root tips obtained from germinating seeds. Root tips were pre-treated with 0.4% colchicine for 3 hours and then fixed in Carnoy fixative solution for 1 hour. After hydrolysis in HCl 1N at 60 °C, the tips were stained in leuco-basic fuchsine for 7–8 minutes.

Observations

This species occurs in southern Europe, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Balkans, in Turkey, and in Syria (Greuter 2006+). Although several chromosome counts are available in the literature (Moore and Frankton 1962; Chuksanova et al. 1968; Valdes 1970; Kuzmanova et al. 1979; Snogerup 1995), no data have been published so far for Italy, where two subspecies can be found, i.e., O. illyricum subsp. illyricum, distributed throughout south-central Italy (including Sardegna and Sicilia), and O. illyricum subsp. cardunculus (Boiss.) Arènes, which is known only for Sicilia (Bartolucci et al. 2018). We confirm here the chromosome number 2n = 34 previously reported for the species.

G. Astuti, A. Giacò, L. Peruzzi

Figure 6. 

Onopordum illyricum L. subsp. illyricum from c.da Rossillo (San Marco Argentano, Cosenza), 2n = 34. Scale bar: 10 μm.

Acknowledgements

GA, AG, LS, LP gratefully acknowledge the project PRIN “PLAN.T.S. 2.0 – towards a renaissance of PLANt Taxonomy and Systematics” led by the University of Pisa, under the grant number 2017JW4HZK (Principal Investigator: Lorenzo Peruzzi).

References

  • Anderson IA (1991) Allium L. In: Strid A, Tan K (Eds) Mountain Flora of Greece Vol. 2. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 701–714.
  • Arrigoni PV, Giannerini M, Mori B (1976) Contributi citotassonomici e cariologici alla conoscenza di alcune serpentinofite toscane. Giornale Botanico Italiano 110(6): 438–439.
  • Arrigoni PV, Giannerini M, Mori B (1980) Numeri cromosomici per la flora italiana: 714–721. Informatore Botanico Italiano 12(2): 137–143.
  • Bartolucci F, Peruzzi L, Galasso G, Albano A, Alessandrini A, Ardenghi NMG, Astuti G, Bacchetta G, Ballelli S, Banfi E, Barberis G, Bernardo L, Bouvet D, Bovio M, Cecchi L, Di Pietro R, Domina G, Fascetti S, Fenu G, Festi F, Foggi B, Gallo L, Gottschlich G, Gubellini L, Iamonico D, Iberite M, Jiménez-Mejías P, Lattanzi E, Marchetti D, Martinetto E, Masin RR, Medagli P, Passalacqua NG, Peccenini S, Pennesi R, Pierini B, Poldini L, Prosser F, Raimondo FM, Roma-Marzio F, Rosati L, Santangelo A, Scoppola A, Scortegagna S, Selvaggi A, Selvi F, Soldano A, Stinca A, Wagensommer RP, Wilhalm T, Conti F (2018) An updated checklist of the vascular flora native to Italy. Plant Biosystems 152(2): 179–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2017.1419996
  • Bicknell C (1896) Flora of Bordighera and San Remo. Pietro Gibelli ed, Bordighera, 345 pp.
  • Brullo C, Brullo S, Giusso del Galdo G (2010) Note tassonomiche e nomenclaturali su Allium permixtum (Alliaceae), specie critica della flora italiana. La Biodiversità vegetale in Italia: aggiornamenti sui gruppi critici della flora vascolare. Società Botanica Italiana, Roma 22–23 Ottobre: 41–43.
  • Cheshmedzhiev I, Marinov Y (2009) Allium phthioticum: new species for the Bulgarian flora. Phytologia Balcanica 15: 385–388.
  • Chrtek Jr J, Zahradníček J, Krak K, Fehrer J (2009) Genome size in Hieracium subgenus Hieracium (Asteraceae) is strongly correlated with major phylogenetic groups. Annals of Botany 104: 161–178. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcp107
  • Chuksanova NA, Sveshnikova LI, Alexandrova TV (1968) A new evidence on chromosome numbers in species of the family Compositae. Giseke. Botanicheskii Zhurnal (Moscow and Leningrad) 53: 381–386.
  • Conti F (1995) Prodromo della Flora del Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo. Almadue srl, Roma, 127 pp.
  • Conti F (1998) An annotated checklist of the flora of the Abruzzo. Bocconea 10: 1–276.
  • Conti F, Bartolucci F (2015) The Vascular Flora of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise (Central Italy). An Annotated Checklist. Geobotany Studies, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 254 pp. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09701-5
  • Foggi B, Ricceri C (1989) Contributo alla conoscenza della flora orofila dell’Appennino Settentrionale. Atti della Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali. Memorie, serie B 96: 77–81.
  • Geraci A, Di Gristina E, Schicchi R (2007) Reports (1640–1644). In: Kamari G, Blanché C, Garbari F (Eds) Mediterranean chromosome number reports 17. Flora Mediterranea 17: 314–319.
  • Gottschlich G (2018) Hieracium. In: Pignatti S (Ed.) Flora d’Italia Vol. 3, Edagricole, Bologna, 1138–1195.
  • Greuter W (2006+) Compositae (pro parte majore). In: Greuter W, Raab-Straube E von (Eds) Compositae. Euro+Med Plantbase – the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. [accessed 3 December 2021] https://doi.org/10.3372/wi.36.36206
  • Hallaçi B, Shuka L (2013) Allium phthioticum Boiss. & Heldr., Allium victorialis L. and Melampyrum bihariense A. Kerner, three new species in the flora of Albania. Natura Montenegrina 12(3–4): 563–568.
  • Mráz P (2003) Hieracium piliferum group (Asteraceae) in the West Carpathians. Biologia (Bratislava) 58: 29–36.
  • Moore RJ, Frankton C (1962) Cytotaxonomic studies in the tribe Cynareae (Compositae). Canadian Journal of Botany 40(2): 281–299. https://doi.org/10.1139/b62-027
  • Rice A, Glick L, Abadi S, Einhorn M, Kopelman NM, Salman-Minkov A, Mayzel J, Chay O, Mayrose I (2014+) The Chromosome Counts Database (CCDB) – a community resource of plant chromosome numbers. New Phytologist 206: 19–26. [accessed 3 December 2021] https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13191
  • Snogerup S (1995) Reports 491–517. In: Kamari G, Felber F, Garbari F (Eds) Mediterranean chromosome number reports 5. Flora Mediterranea 5: 331–337.
  • Tzanoudakis DB (1982) A cytotaxonomic study of two Greek mountainous species of Allium (sectio Molium). Botanika Chronika (Patras) 2: 143–151.
  • Valdés B (1970) Números cromosómicos de algunas plantas españolas. Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Historia Natural, Sección Biológica 68: 193–197.
login to comment