untitled ACTA BOT. CROAT. 75 (1), 2016 153 Acta Bot. Croat. 75 (1), 153–156, 2016 CODEN: ABCRA 25 DOI: 10.1515/botcro-2016-0012 ISSN 0365-0588 eISSN 1847-8476 Short communication First Italian record of Paspalum notatum Flüggé (Poaceae) and its typifi cation Adriano Stinca1*, Gabriele Galasso2, Enrico Banfi 2 1 Department of Agriculture, University of Naples Federico II, via Università 100, 80055 Portici (Naples), Italy 2 Sezione di Botanica, Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano, corso Venezia 55, 20121 Milan, Italy Abstract: In the present work the presence of Paspalum notatum Flüggé (Poaceae) in Italy was reported for the fi rst time. It is a neophyte native to America, known for applications in phytoremediation. Its typifi cation, ecology and invasiveness status are also presented. Keywords: alien species, invasiveness, phytoremediation, vascular fl ora * Corresponding author, e-mail: adriano.stinca@unina.it Introduction The genus Paspalum L. (Poaceae) comprises about 330 species (Zuloaga and Morrone 2005) and is chiefl y distrib- uted in tropical and temperate regions of America (Zuloaga et al. 2003). It includes small to robust perennial, rarely an- nual, herbs that are usually cespitose, but may creep via rhi- zomes or stolons, and have filiform to lanceolate leaf blades, which may be flat, plicate, or involute. The infl ores- cence is racemose, unilateral, with solitary or paired spike- lets. The lower glume is commonly absent, the upper one and the lower lemma are herbaceous to membranous, and the upper anthecium is indurate to membranous. In the European vascular fl ora 10 species have been re- corded (Valdés et al. 2009–2014), among which 6 are pres- ent in Italy, all aliens (Celesti-Grapow et al. 2009a, b, Sol- dano and Verloove 2015): P. dilatatum Poir., P. distichum L., P. exaltatum J. Presl & C. Presl, P. paucispicatum Vasey, P. quadrifarium Lam. and P. vaginatum Sw. From recently, another two alien species are in course of reporting in Italy: P. dasypleurum Kunze ex Desv. and P. thunbergii Kunth ex Steud. (Banfi and Galasso 2015) In this paper the neotropical neophyte P. notatum Flüggé (Bahiagrass) is recorded for the fi rst time in Italy. Its typifi - cation, ecology and invasiveness status are also presented. Materials and methods Field research in Southern Italy was undertaken from 2013 to 2015. Species was identifi ed according to Zuloaga et al. (2004), Zuloaga and Morrone (2005), and Allen and Hall (2002). The Flüggé’s (1810) protologue was also ex- amined. Collected specimens are kept in Herbarium Porti- cense (PORUN, acronym according to Thiers 2011) and Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano (MSNM). Geocoding of the Italian locality of the plant was performed with the use of a portable GPS device (GPS map 60CSx, Garmin, USA), calibrated beforehand (geographic system UTM WGS84). Italian literature was examined to detect previous indi- cations of the species in Italy (e.g. Fiori 1923, Zangheri 1976, Pignatti 1982, Conti et al. 2005, 2007, Celesti- Grapow et al. 2009a, b, 2010). The degree of naturalization (status) was defi ned according to Richardson et al. (2000) and Pyšek et al. (2004) through the monitoring of the Ital- ian population. In detail was observed the presence of the species and its ability to spread in the fi eld in three consecu- tive years (2013–2015). Results and discussion Paspalum notatum Flüggé (sub Paspalus notatus), Gram. Monogr., Paspalum: 106(–108, 207–208). 1810 [5.V.1810]. Typus, hic designatus: United States Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, E. P. Ventenat s.n., 1802; lectotypus in BM-ex Herb. Nolte (picture in SI!), isolectotypus in US-2855762! (fragm. ex BM). We were not able to fi nd the duplicates kept in B, KIEL, MO, P-LA, presumably being destroyed during the Second World War. The present typifi cation is a consequence of the fact that Koning and Sosef (1985: 313) indicated isolectotypi on a set of several herbaria, while Zu- loaga and Morrone (2005: 180) did not establish a valid typifi cation as they didn’t use the phrase “designated here” (hic designatus) or an equivalent (Art. 7.10 of ICN, McNeill et al. 2012). STINCA A., GALASSO G., BANFI E. 154 ACTA BOT. CROAT. 75 (1), 2016 = Paspalum notatum var. saurae Parodi, Revista Ar- gent. Agron. 15(1): 55 (fi g. 1b). 1948. ≡ Paspalum saurae (Parodi) Parodi, Darwiniana 15(1– 2): 106. 1969 [30.I.1969]. Typus: Argentina, Entre Ríos: Concepción del Uruguay, L. R. Parodi 12670, January 1937; holotypus in BAA, iso- typus in US-1721333! Fig. 1. Distribution of Paspalum notatum in Europe (including Azores and Canary Islands) with the fi rst Italian record (star) and previous reports (circles: 1 – Scholz 2002; 2 – Pyke 2003; 3 – Verloove 2003; 4 – Verloove 2005; 5 – Böhling and Scholz 2004; 6 – Silva et al. 2005; 7 – Sánchez Gullón et al. 2006; 8 – Valdés et al. 2007; 9 – Verloove and Reyes-Betancort 2011; 10 – Siverio Núñez et al. 2013). Fig. 2. Italian specimen of Paspalum notatum preserved at PORUN. PASPALUM NOTATUM IN ITALY ACTA BOT. CROAT. 75 (1), 2016 155 P. notatum is common in pastures along the belt warm and temperate American regions, from central Mexico to Uruguay (e.g. Quarín et al. 1984). It was introduced in trop- ical and subtropical areas of the world for purposes of turf establishment, forage crop growth, erosion control and slope stabilization (e.g. Busey 1992, Ogura et al. 2005). In recent years, this grass has been found effective in renatur- ation of vegetation of mined lands, uptake of heavy metals and even removal of radioactive elements (phytoremedia- tion) (e.g. Xia 2004, Huang et al. 2009). In addition, labora- tory experiments have shown that pollen of this plant cause allergic respiratory diseases (Davies et al. 2012). P. notatum was collected at Scalea (province of Cosen- za) in Southern Italy. The site is located on the Tyrrhenian coast of the Calabria region in the northern sector of the Lao river plain, at 4–5 m a.s.l. (UTM WGS84: 33S 567494 E – 4407547 N, 33S 567436 E – 4407488 N, and 33S 567427 E – 4407484 N). Climate (thermopluviometric data from Fiumefreddo meteorological station, 220 m a.s.l., about 65 km from the studied site) belongs to the Mediterranean type character- ized by average annual temperature of 16.7 °C, average an- nual rainfall of 1,141 mm, and drought summer period ranging from May to August (Brandmayr et al. 1991). P. notatum was found in very disturbed grassland sites. This alien species was probably introduced via seeds to cre- ate lawns and therefore subsequently spread.The discov- ered population covers an area of approximately 300 m2. It shares the place with Avena barbata Pott ex Link, Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers., Dactylis glomerata L. subsp. glomera- ta, Oxalis corniculata L., Parietaria judaica L., Reichardia picroides (L.) Roth, Solanum nigrum L., S. villosum Mill., Sonchus oleraceus L., and with other aliens, i.e. Chamae- syce maculata (L.) Small, Erigeron sumatrensis Retz., Pas- palum dilatatum Poir., P. distichum L., that emphasize the human impact. Today in Europe (Fig. 1) P. notatum has been reported in Greece (Scholz 2002), Spain (Böhling and Scholz 2004, Sánchez Gullón et al. 2006, Valdés et al. 2007), and Azores Islands in Portugal (Silva et al. 2005). In Spain (Pyke 2003, Verloove 2003, 2005, Verloove and Reyes-Betancort 2011) and Canary Islands (Siverio Núñez et al. 2013, fi nding con- fi rmed by Verloove and Reyes-Betancort 2011) the var. saurae (synonym by P. notatum according to Allen and Hall 2002) was also recorded, and it presents the same mor- phological features of the new Italian population. In Italy P. notatum was detected for three consecutive years (2013–2015), showing a noticeable vegetative propa- gation. According to Richardson et al. (2000) and Pyšek et al. (2004), the observation period is too short to understand the real success of vegetative propagation and declare a state of naturalized species. Therefore it must be considered an alien casual, waiting for further fi eld investigations to achieve the proper status attribution. Specimina visa ITALY: Calabria, Scalea (Cosenza), park between Cor- so Mediterraneo and via Michele Bianchi (UTM WGS84: 33S 567494 E – 4407547 N), mowed lawn, 5 m a.s.l., no exp., 14 Aug 2013, leg. A. Stinca, det. E. Banfi & G. Ga- lasso (PORUN-3063, MSNM-44681); Calabria, Scalea (Cosenza), park between Corso Mediterraneo and via Rug- giero di Lauria (UTM WGS84: 33S 567436 E – 4407488 N), grassy site, 4 m a.s.l., no exp., 20 Aug 2014, leg. A. Stinca, det. A. Stinca, E. Banfi & G. Galasso (PO- RUN-3064-3065, MSNM-45057) (Fig. 2); Calabria, Scalea (Cosenza), park between Corso Mediterraneo and via Rug- giero di Lauria (UTM WGS84: 33S 567427 E – 4407484 N), grassy site, 4 m a.s.l., no exp., 16 Aug 2015, leg. A. Stinca & M. Ravo, det. A. Stinca (PORUN-3577). USA: United States Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, E. P. Ven te- nat s.n., 1802 [BM (picture in SI, US-2855762 (fragm. ex BM)]. References Allen, C. M., Hall, D. W., 2002: 25.26 Paspalum L. 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