Contribution to the knowledge of Viola L. sect. Melanium Ging. (Violaceae) of the central-southern Apennine and Sicily (Italy)

Abstract

The study examines the species of Viola sect.Melanium distributed in the Apennine chain that from central-southern Tuscany goes to Calabria and Sicily. The reason for the investigation is to be found in an unsatisfactory correspondence between the morphological characters reported in the flowers and what was observed in the Viola samples collected by Moraldo and Pisani in the mountains of Calabria. Morphological discrepancies also found in Viola exsiccata, coming from the Apennine chain in question, present in some herbals we have examined. With regard to the distinctive morphological characteristics adopted, for the definition of the taxa, we have considered valid as mentioned in the memoirs of Merxmüller & Lippert (1977), Erben (1984) and Moraldo & al. (2011). The proposed classification is based on a new interpretation of the differential morphological characters that led to identify, in addition to the taxa already described, 12 new entities for these territories.