home   flora of romania  endangered species of transylvania  endangered habitats of transylvania

Anthemis tinctoria L. ssp. fussii (Griseb.) Beldie

Flora Europaea             This is a subspecies which was known from the Oriental and Meridional Carpathians (from Bucovina and Rodna Mountains up to Cozia Massif) but also identified by us in 1986 from Apuseni Mountains - Podeni, Pietroasa and Moldovenesti, Cluj County, at the border of Trascau Mountains on basaltic rocks. According to Nyarady, E.J. - Compositae in Savulescu, T. (1964, coord) - Flora Reipublicae Popularis Romanicae IX, Ed. Acad. RPR, Bucuresti pag. 351 'the involucral bracts are brownish towards their tips' in this subspecies. In Dihoru, G., Parvu, C. (1987) - Endemic Plants in the Flora of Romania, Ed. Ceres, Bucuresti, p. 35 'the receptacular squams oblong-lanceolate, the marginal ones brownish towards the tip'. Ciocarlan , V. (2000) - Illustrated Flora of Romania, Ed. Ceres, Bucuresti p. 792 states that 'the involucral hypsophilia have a brown stripe on their margins.' Thus, the main character of this subspecies seems to be rather ambiguous and should be clarified. The taxon was also described seemingly previously (Anthemis chrysantha Schur 1866, Anthemis aurantiaca Schur 1858 n.nud.) but the name of Grisebach dates back to 1852. However the two names given by F. Schur are very suggestive for the bright orange color of the flowers of the individuals in this subspecies, which are clearly different from the dark yellow encountered in the other subspecies. The coronula of the achenae is 0.5 mm long in this subspecies while considered shorter in the others. We consider this character as quite doubtful. Between Pietroasa and Moldovenesti, Cluj county, July 2010. dr. Alexandru Badarau, alexandru@transsilvanica.net