which is 4 to 7 cm long. Tepals are usually of different shades of yellow and less frequent of violet or purple colour. The outer tepals have multicellular coloured hairs (so called "beard"). Plants bloom very early in the spring, in March and April. Its distribution area is limited to the Croatian part of the Mediterranean areacentral Dalmatia, the surroundings of the cities of Drniš, Unešić, Zadar, Šibenik and Split, as well as the nearby islands (e.g. Vir, Čiovo, Brač, Kornati etc.). Populations of I. adriatica are generally small, and in the past few years, some of them have disappeared or decreased. For this reason, I. adriatica belongs to the NT (near threatened) IUCN category in the Croatian Red Book of Vascular Plants (Nikolić 2017). However, the plant is suitable for cultivation in greenhouses and in vitro (Vršek et al. 2004; Kereša et al. 2009), and therefore, besides an ornamental use, it has a good perspective to become a useful medical plant, as it was shown for some other Iris taxa (Kukula-Koch et al. 2015; Venditti et al. 2017).

No abstract

The wild vascular flora of the area in the northwestern part of Croatia-Hrvatsko zagorje (near the settlements of Cerje Jesenjsko, Šaša, Pašnik, Vrbno and Ježovec, along with the related hamlets) was explored during the vegetation season of 2011. So far, no floristic data have been recorded for this area, planned to be a part of the future Hrvatsko zagorje Regional Park. On the area of about 4 km 2 , 389 vascular plant species (which belong to 77 families) were noticed. The most abundant families are Fabaceae (9.3%), Poaceae (7.7%), Asteraceae (7.5%), Lamiaceae (6.2%) and Rosaceae (5.1%). The spectrum of life forms indicates the dominance of hemicryptophytes (50.4%), and the most prominent chorological type is Eurasian (55.0%). The share of urbanophobic and invasive taxa as well as the values of indicators of anthropogenic changes in the researched flora indicate that the investigated area shows semi-natural character, with weak to moderate anthropogenic pressure. Although the share of endemic, endangered and protected taxa is low, the diversity of other native plants justifies protection of the researched area at the level of a regional park.

Some wild, morphologically diverse taxa of the genus Iris in the broad Alpine-Dinaric area have never been explored molecularly, and/or have ambiguous systematic status. The main aims of our research were to perform a molecular study of critical Iris taxa from that area (especially a narrow endemic accepted species I. adriatica, for which we also analysed genome size) and to explore the contribution of eight microsatellites and highly variable chloroplast DNA (ndhJ, rpoC1) markers to the understanding of the Iris taxa taxonomy and phylogeny. Both the microsatellite-based UPGMA and plastid markers-based maximum likelihood analysis discriminated three main clusters in the set of 32 analysed samples, which correspond well to the lower taxonomic categories of the genus, and support separate status of ambiguous regional taxa (e.g., I. sibirica subsp. erirrhiza, I. x croatica and I. x rotschildii). The first molecular data on I. adriatica revealed its genome size (2C = 12.639 ± 0.202 pg) and indicated the existence of ecotypes. For future molecular characterisation of the genus we recommend the utilisation of microsatellite markers supplemented with a combination of plastid markers.

By performing a high-resolution spatial-genetic analysis of a partially clonal Salvia brachyodon population, we elucidated its clonal architecture and seedling recruitment strategy. The sampling of the entire population was based on a 1 × 1 m grid and each sampled individual was genotyped. Population-genetic statistics were combined with geospatial analyses. On the population level, the presence of both sexual and clonal reproduction and repeated seedling recruitment as the prevailing strategy of new genets establishment were confirmed. On the patch level, a phalanx clonal architecture was detected. A significant negative correlation between patches’ sizes and genotypic richness was observed as young plants were not identified within existing patches of large genets but almost exclusively in surrounding areas. The erosion of the genetic variability of older patches is likely caused by the inter-genet competition and resulting selection or by a random die-off of individual genets accompanied by the absence of new seedlings establishment. This study contributes to our understanding of how clonal architecture and seedling recruitment strategies can shape the spatial-genetic structure of a partially clonal population and lays the foundation for the future research of the influence of the population’s clonal organization on its sexual reproduction.