The genus Astragalus L. (Fabaceae) in Europe with exclusion of the former Soviet Union

Abstract

SummaryA modern treatment of the European species of the genus Astragalus with complete descriptions of all species and a key is given. Excluded are the species which occur only in the former Soviet Union (Baltic states, White Russia, Ukraine, Moldavia and Russia itself) and those of Turkey in Europe, because these will by treated by ANDREJ SYTIN (St. Petersburg) in a special paper and due to the fact, that I could not investigate enough material of all the species concerned. 112 species will be treated here. ZusammenfassungDie Gattung Astragalus L. (Fabaceae) in Europa unter Ausschluss der früheren Sowjetunion Eine moderne Bearbeitung der europäischen Arten der Gattung Astragalus mit vollständigen Beschreibungen aller Arten und einem Bestimmungsschlüssel wird vorgelegt. Ausgeschlossen sind diejenigen Arten, welche nur in der ehemaligen Sowjetunion (Baltische Staaten, Belarus/Weißrussland, Ukraine, Moldavien und Russland selbst) sowie der Europäi-schen Türkei vorkommen, weil sie von ANDREJ SYTIN (St. Petersburg) in einer eigenen Arbeit behandelt werden und ich selbst zuwenig Material derselben untersuchen konnte. 112 Arten werden hier behandelt.

Strong potential for endozoochory by waterfowl in a rare, ephemeral wetland plant species, Astragalus contortuplicatus (Fabaceae)

“…Hungarian milkvetch (Astragalus contortuplicatus L., Fabaceae) is an annual, ephemeral plant species, occurring sporadically in salt meadows, river banks and semideserts [16]. The Central European distribution of A. contortuplicatus is restricted to periodically flooded habitats like river floodplains (mainly of the River Tisza and of its tributaries; Fig.…”

“…The potential for zoochory of plant species having a sporadic distribution remains largely unexplored, and it is unclear to what extent a limited distribution can indicate a poor capacity for endozoochory. The Hungarian milkvetch Astragalus contortuplicatus is a rare and endangered plant species in Hungary [15], and its occurrence is sporadic and ephemeral there and elsewhere in its range [16].…”

Ecological remarks onAstragalus maritimusandA. verrucosus, two threatened exclusive endemic species of Sardinia

“…2,500 species, included in some 245 taxonomic sections (Lewis et al, 2005). A. maritimus and A. verrucosus, inside the subgenus Trimeniaeus Bunge, were assigned to the Drepanodes Bunge and Platyglottis Bunge sections, respectively (Podlech, 1990(Podlech, , 2008. A. maritimus (Fig.…”

Relationships of <i>Astragalus</i> L. in section Sesamei based on morphological criteria and molecular markers

“…Astragalus L. is the largest and most diverse genus of all angiosperms with more than 2,500 species distributed in arid and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and South America (Podlech, 2008). It is particularly abundant in south western (SW) and south central (SC) Asia, western North America and South America (Maassoumi, 1998).…”

“…In recent taxonomic treatments of the genus, all annual species of Astragalus in the Old World were classified under subgenus Trimeniaeus, which has been considered to be monophyletic (Taeb et al, 2007). Podlech (2008) classified the annual species of Astragalus into 14 sections including the section Sesamei DC. The section Sesamei is represented by five species in Egypt and five species in Saudi Arabia (Migahid, 1996;Boulos, 1999).…”