[Taxacom] Help with Sisyrinchium

[Torbjörn Tyler]

Dear North American colleagues,

While preparing the treatment of Iridaceae for the Flora Nordica  
series, I have come across a specimen of Sisyrinchium collected on  
waste land in Norway which obviously does not belong to S. montanum  
(the only species of the genus previously recorded from Northern  
Europe), but I am not able to identify it conclusively.

The specimen is not ideally developed and in fruiting stage with only  
one ± withered flower, but I have observed that the margins of the  
spathes are scabrous from a marginal row of densely set, forward- 
curved, minute teeth or papilla. I have checked all specimens of the  
genus available here in herbarium LD and I have refound this character  
only in specimens identified as S. rosulatum (= S. exilis), but we do  
miss many species in our collections. However, in the description of  
S. rosulatum in Flora of North America (on the internet) this  
character is not mentioned, but instead the pigmentation of the fruits  
(with dark purplish apex and suture zones on a ± pale matrix; also  
seen in the few specimens in LD examined) is described as diagnostic  
and this does not fit my Norwegian specimen which have fruits that are  
pale straw-coloured throughout. With respect to all other characters  
available for study the Norwegian specimen appears to fit both  
descriptions and specimens of S. rosulatum, though.

So now I wonder if anybody knows if scabrous spathe-margins is at all  
a usefull character in Sisyrinchium, and if so, if it may be  
considered diagnostic for S. rosulatum or if there are other species  
that have this character (then probably not represented in herbarium  
LD...). I would also like to know how constant the coloration pattern  
of the fruits are in S. rosulatum.

All kinds of help and suggestions will be highly appreciated!

Torbjörn Tyler

> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Torbjörn Tyler, Ph.D,
>
> – Curator at herbarium LD.
> – Editor in Chief of Nordic Journal of Botany.
> – Deputy secretary of Lund Botanical Society, with special
> responsibility for Projekt Skånes Mossor.
> – Responsible for the project The Hieracia of Sweden.
>
>
> Botanical Museum
> Ö. Vallgatan 18
> SE-223 61 Lund
>
> tel. +(0)46-222 89 65
>
>
> e-mail:  
> torbjorn.tyler at botmus.lu.se<mailto:torbjorn.tyler at botmus.lu.se>
>
> Private address: Enningervägen 12, SE-243 31 Höör (=Hoeoer), tel.
> +(0)413-23123.
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