Blitum venetum (Chenopodiaceae), a new species from the north-eastern Dolomites (Italian Eastern Alps)

Abstract

A new species, Blitum venetum Iamonico, Argenti, Sciuto & Wolf is described from the Dolomites Massif (North-Eastern Italy) on the basis of molecular analyses (nuclear ITS and plastid trnL-F regions) and morphological investigation. The new species is similar to B. bonus-henricus and B. californicum, but it differs from these taxa by characters of leaves (width, pubescence, and margins), inflorescence (presence of bracts), perianth segments (colour), and seeds (diameter, colour, and seed testa ornamentation). Moreover, in phylogenetic reconstructions B. venetum results as clearly separated from the other species of the genus; this finding was further strengthened by the nucleotide divergences calculated between the sequence of the type specimen and other Blitum taxa, which are comparable with the interspecific divergences calculated inside this genus.