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Astragalus peterfii Jávorka
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This is a local endemic species for the Transylvanian Plain being certainly known from only two locations (Suatu - Banffy hill and Caianu - Fedeu hill - see Badarau et al. 2001) though N. Roman (1996) has published other five locations from the same area (that he found much earlier, in 1962 - between Caianu and Iuriu de Campie on Ghiurbert, Seles, Fermei, Carligatele and Beleni hills) but which did not get confirmed nowadays.Recently, the legitimate character of the taxon was challenged by Panzaru (2006) in an article published in an Italian local journal claiming that this species is a synonym of Astragalus vesicarius L. ssp. pastellianus (Pollini) Arcang. (see this link from Flora Veronese) which grows in the Alps of Italy and the mountains of western Bulgaria. This is not true at all and the two taxa are very different though a large majority of the Transylvanian naturalists took the assertions from this article for good and were concerned with the 'loss' of one of their most precious endemic plants. In fact Astragalus vesicarius ssp. pastellianus is very similar to A. vesicarius with the exception of the flower color and some minor differences while A. peterfii is very distinct in concerning the morphological characters from both as it can be seen from the last monography of the European Astragalus species published by Podlech (2008) where the Transylvanian endemic is fully recognized. Also Panzaru (2006) seems not be aware that the chromosome number is very different also in the two taxa being 2n=32 in A. vesicarius ssp. pastellianus and 2n=64 in A. peterfii. Besides, though the color of the flowers is the same A. peterfii is not morphologically similar to the Pontic A, vesicarius L. ssp. pseudoglaucus (Klokov) Ciocarlan which is very similar in exchange to A. vesicarius . The origin of this endemic Transylvanian species was a mystery since it was discovered in 1916. The various hypotheses which were forwarded proved one after another to be false. Our last idea was that it was born through an autoploid speciation which was produced in a previously extant larger isolated population of Astragalus vesicarius L. from Suatu-Caianu area (other totally isolated populations of A. vesicarius L. still exist east from Cluj-Napoca) but also this hypothesis was not to be confirmed. However, there are, after so many years of unsolved questions some good news. A team of researchers seemingly hit the spot and they are about to solve the problem. The true and somewhat expected eastern origin of this Transylvanian famous local endemic species is about to be revealed soon. Suatu, Banffy hill, Cluj county, May 2009 Bartha Laszlo, PhD student, bartha19@yahoo.com
Caianu, Fedeu (Fedo) hill, May 2009 Bartha Laszlo, PhD student, bartha19@yahoo.com
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