New records of Characeae for Sicily (Italy)

During the last year, the first two authors continued their survey of the scarcely known Characeae flora of the island of Sicily: plants were collected in different periods, habitats and areas of the island, and identifications – made on fresh material – were based mainly on Mouronval et al. (2015). We had the opportunity to include here some results deriving from the visit in Sicily made by Klaus van de Weyer in March 2018. Roman Romanov identified some specimens and revised some identifications. Data for Sicily are basically limited to more than one hundred years old reports; data for the national Flora have been completed with recent reports for Sardinia (cf. the work made by Ralf Becker). We present here the main results (in alphabetic order). 1) Chara baltica Bruzelius (new for Sicily) – Collected in different seasons in the lake Preola (Nature Reserve near Mazara), where it probably colonises most of the lake bottom, reaching a depth of ca. 2 m. 2) C. braunii C.C. Gmel. (new for Palermo province, new population of a rare species in Italy) – Collected in the small mountain ponds of Rebuttone. 3) C. canescens Loisel. (new population of a rare species in Italy): we found a new parthenogenetic population in the “Margi Milo” (Petrosino, Trapani province), where it grows together with C. cf. aspera Willd. 4) C. conimbrigensis A.G. Cunha (new for Sicily and Italy) – Collected in June-July in shallow mountain ponds, in the Nebrodi Mts, at about 1400 m a.s.l. It is different from the similar C. gymnophylla A. Braun mainly for its tylacanthous stem cortex. Waiting for further studies, we provisionally treat this taxon (as well as the following one) at the species rank. 5) C. oedophylla Feldmann (new for Sicily and Italy) – Collected in mid-April in temporary ponds (in the locus classicus of Isoetes todaroana Troia & Raimondo near Mazara del Vallo). The taxon is currently known in few sites in W-Mediterranean. 6) Nitella capillaris (Krock.) J. Groves & Bull.-Webst. (species not recently reported for Sicily and Italy) – Collected in the wetlands of Anguillara, near Calatafimi. 7) N. opaca (C. Agardh ex Bruzelius) C. Agardh (new for Sicily) – Collected in the small mountain ponds of Rebuttone (near Piana degli Albanesi) and Coda di Riccio (in the Nature Reserve of Ficuzza). 8) Tolypella salina Corill. (new for Sicily) – Collected in March in a single pond at Margi Milo near Petrosino (Klaus van de Weyer), it probably occurs also in other sites along the western coast of the island. - Mouronval JB, Baudouin S, Borel N, Soulié-Märsche I, Klesczewski M & Grillas P. 2015. Guide des Characées de France méditerranéenne. Office National de la Chasse et Faune Sauvage, Paris. 214 p