Boros István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 8. (Budapest 1957)

Baksay, L.: The cytotaxonomy of the species Chrysanthemum maximum Ram., Centaurea montana L., Serratula lycopifolia (Vill.) Kern., and Bupleurum falcatum L., ranging in Europe

Bupleunim falcatum L. is ranging in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, and, through the temperate regions of Asia, to Japan. It is a hilly-montane species, ascending even to the subalpine regions, of a wide oecology, extremely varying. It is a member of very divergent plant associations, very frequent in places of a primary relict character, further in dry grassy slopes, and in secondary places in copses. The chromosome number of specimens originating from the plant associations Festuco-Brometum erecti and Sesleriaetum Heuflerianae, then from Caricetum humilis, all in the area of the Hungarian Central Mountains, was 2n = 16. The basic chromosome number of the genus is 7—8. It is very rich in species, their number exceeds 70, and, since the publication of Wulffs monograph in the Pflanzenreich, numerous new species were yet described. Of the many species, we know the chromosome number of but a few, 8 in all. Polyploidy is very rare, in the whole umbelliferous family. The chromosome number of Bupleurum falcatum collected in the OrnoFageto-Caricetum albae association on the northern slope of Mt. Csókakő in the Mts. Vértes of the Hungarian Central Mountains was 2n = 32 (4 x) ; and the plant was strikingly taller and with broader leaves than its diploid company (Baksay 1955, Fig. 34, 35). Author compared this plant with the relevant descriptions and herbarium material and found that this strikingly tall falcatum occurs in Transylvania, France, in the Eastern Alps, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Its specific name is Bupleurum dilatatum Schur, a name later disposed of and forgotten like that of Chyrsanthemum maximum Ram., or possibly even more so. The tetraploid plant of the Mts. Vértes wholly agrees with the herbarium cotype of S c h u r. He named this plant Bupleurum dilatatum (herb. Transs.), but he had some doubts as to its specific value and designated it later as B. falcatum var. d. latifolium (Sertum n. 1162, 1866), then as ssp. dilatatum in the Enum. Plantarum Transsylvaniáé (p. 253, 1866). Even before Schur, L ap e y r o u s e (1. c. p. 142) described a plant with a strikingly tall stature and large leaves as Bupleurum petiolare ß majus latifolium from the Pyrenees, almost certainly identical with the Bupleurum dilatatum of S c h u r. In his original description, Lapeyrouse emphasizes the length of the leaf petiole and the linearity of the stem leaves, this latter features being characteristic of B. falcatum. Unfortunately, there are no French specimens in the Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, but it is evident from the description that there are two plants hidden under the name B. petiolare, and that var. ß refers to the tetrapolid. Post also described a monstruous falcatum as B. antiochium from Syrie. In the system of Wulff, this plant figures within the species B. falcatum as var. a. genuinum f. petiolare of the ssp. eufalcatum (together with the synonyms of Schur), and, again, as f. a. elatum or giganteum under var. B. corsicanum. Even sf. dilatatum Podpera belongs to the list of synonyms. The range of the tetraploid Bupleurum dilatatum is largely corresponding with that of Chrysanthemum maximum. There is a further similarity concerning its oecological claims, yet, in this regard, it cannot be so sharply distinguished from its diploid as, e. g. Chrysanthemum maximum or Centaurea montana from their corresponding diploids. The plant associations mentioned above, from which the plants originate, are of very similar oecology, they are on northern or western dolomite and limestone mountain sides with a steep inclination ; the diploid was present in one of them, the polyploid in the other but the two were not yet observed together. For instance, the occurrence of the tetraploid