DISTRIBUTION. North-eastern Turkey and the Caucasus Mountains. HABITAT. Calcareous and non-calcareous rocks and slopes; 250-1 500 m.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. I am indebted to Tony Hall of the Alpine and Herbaceous Department at Kew for providing notes on the cultivation and propagation of these three species of Origanum.
REFERENCES
Briquet, J. (1895). Amaracus, in Engler & Prantl., Die Natiirlichen
De Wolf, G . P. (1954). Notes on cultivated Labiates 3, Origanum and
Elliott, R. (1966). Of marjorams and dittanies. Bulletin of the Alpine Garden
Gerarde, J. (1597). Herball.John Norton, London. Hepper, F. N. (1987). P l a n t i y a Bible Garden. HMSO, London. Ietswaart, J. H. (1980). Leiden Botanical Series 4: A taxonomic revision of the
genus Origanum (Labiatae). Leiden University Press, Leiden. Miller, P. ( 1768). The Gardeners Dictionary, ed. 8. London. Rix, M. (1981). Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’. The Plantsman 3: 132. Starling, B. N. (1981). Origanum ‘Barbara Tingey’. Bulletin of the Alpine
Garden Socieg of Great Britain 49: 336. Tucker, A. 0. & Rollins, E. D. (1989). The species, hybrids and cultivars
of Origanum (Lamiaceae) cultivated in the United States. Baileya 23: 14-27.
Turner, W. (1548). The Names of Herbes. Facsimile ed. (1965) Ray Society, London.
PJIanzenfamilien 4, 3a: 304-306. Engelmann, Leipzig.
relatives. Baileya 3: 57-66.
Society of Great Britain 34: 198-205.
ANOTHER DAPHNE FROM CRETE
Nicholas Turland
Recently I described the discovery ofDaphnegnidioides Jaub. & Spach (Thymelaeaceae) in Crete (Turland, 1991) which brought the total number of Daphne species recorded from that island to three, the two previously known species being D. oleoides Schreb. and D. sericea Vahl. The former is a plant of open rocky places in the high mountains, mainly between 1000 m and 2300 m, while the latter prefers open woodland and garigue at lower altitudes, up to 1200 m. The Cretan populations of D. gnidioides, in contrast, are principally to be found in coastal scrub and garigue, reaching to only 120 m, and are apparently restricted to a small stretch of the southern coast in the western part of the island (see Map 2).
@ Bentham-Moxon Trust 1994. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowlcy Road, OxfordOX4 IJF, UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA02142, USA. 117
In April 1990, my colleague Lance Chilton and I visited the village of Patsianos in the district of Sfakia in south-western Crete with the intention of verifying the identity of a Daphne which had been reported (pers. comm.) from this village by Sydney Fremantle of Twickenham, Middlesex. His description of flowering and fruiting plants seen in the autumn of 1989 seemed compatible with D . gnidioides, the nearest population of which lies only 7 km to the east of Patsianos. I t should be mentioned that D . gnidioides was also recorded from Patsianos by Gandoger ( 19 16), based on a record by Cousturier, although this was never confirmed.
We decided to head for the Kallikratianos gorge, which cuts down through the Sfakian mountains to the coastal plain. Here it has deposited a fan of rocky debris upon which Patsianos is built. The route we chose bypassed the village and initially took us into a small rocky valley immediately west of the mouth of the gorge. O n low vertical cliffs of hard limestone on the west-facing side of this valley we observed a few specialized chasmophytes, surviving there because of the low level of competition and the lack of browsing. We also noted the exotic-looking shrub Nerium oleander L. benefiting from the comparatively moist conditions of the seasonally dry stream- bed. Our attention was soon captured by one ofthe chasmophytes: a much branched dwarf shrubby Daphne, which was definitely not D. gnidioides or indeed either of the other two Cretan species.
The Daphne was mainly observed on the cliffs, as part of the chasmophytic flora, but it was also found above, in rocky phrygana (a community of dwarf, often spiny shrubs maintained by browsing, cutting and burning). The species appears, therefore, to be a facultative chasmophyte; that is, it is adequately competitive among other species, in this case the shrubs of the phrygana, and is sufficiently resistant to browsing to survive away from the cliff habitat. Associated species seen on the cliffs were Ebenus cretica L. (Leguminosae) and Centaureapoculatoris Greuter (Compositae), both of which are facultative chasmophytes and Cretan endemics, the latter known only from this part of Sfakia district. The principal dwarf shrubs forming the phrygana above the cliffs were Anthyllis hermanniae L. (Leguminosae), Coridothymus capitatus (L.) Rchb. f. (Labiatae) and Erica manipuliJora Salisb. (Ericaceae). The largest individuals of the Daphne reached 50 cm across, some of them bearing a few small white flowers, each of which had a slender perianth tube and narrow, spreading to recurved lobes. The shape
118 OBenrham-Moxon Trurr 1994.
of these flowers was reminiscent of those of D . oleoides but the fact that they were borne singly or in pairs rather than in heads of three or more, together with the low altitude (50 m), ruled out that species. Moreover, they were too densely branched, the young twigs too slender and the leaves too small and insufficiently shiny and leathery for D . oleoides. We collected some flowering branches of the Daphne for herbarium specimens and then walked on into the lower part of the Kallikratianos gorge where, curiously, we found no further plants of the Daphne, despite the extensive, apparently suitable, cliff habitat. Nor did we see any sign of D . gnidioides.
After finding the Daphne at Patsianos, Chilton and I realized that we had both seen it independently during the previous year, although neither of us had recognized its significance at the time. In July 1989, Chilton had seen flowering plants on an east-facing cliff west of the coastal port of Agia Roumeli (below the mouth of the Samaria gorge), at an altitude of 100 m. Later that year, in October, I had seen a few sterile plants on an east-facing cliff at 550 m in the upper part of the Agia Irini gorge in the district of Selinos (the gorge is part ofthe valley system north of the coastal village of Sougia, west ofAgia Roumeli) . We had both collected herbarium material, which enabled us later to confirm its identity with the Patsianos plants.
On returning to England, I compared all three Cretan collections with Daphne material from Europe, North Africa and western Asia lodged in the herbaria at Kew and The Natural History Museum, London. The Cretan plants clearly agreed with D.jasminea Sm., which is otherwise known from south-eastern Greece and Cyrenaica in north-eastern Libya (see Map 1). This identification was con- firmed by Brian Mathew at Kew, and the new record was subsequently published in a paper of floristic notes from Crete (Turland, 1992). The Cretan occurrence neatly fills the gap between the two areas of distribution.
In April 1991, I found two further populations in south-western Crete. One is in the lower part of the Skaloti gorge, which is the next ravine east of the Kallikratianos gorge. The plants are more or less restricted to the cliffs here, at an altitude of 200 m, where the rock type is much the same as that of the small valley at Patsianos. The second population is on an east-facing cliff at 125 m in the Eligias gorge, the next ravine east of the Samaria gorge and not far from Chilton’s original locality near Agia Roumeli. I visited the Eligias gorge with the specific aim of finding the Daphne, since Fremantle
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had reported seeing plants there in the autumns of 1988 and 1989 which matched those he saw at Patsianos.
The Agia Irini gorge population was first noted by Bertrand de Montmollin, of the University of NeuchPtel in Switzerland, who published a chromosome count (n=9) based on specimens collected at the locality (Montmollin, 1986). Montmollin was, therefore, the first to record the species from Crete, although he made no comment to this effect in his paper and was presumably unaware of the importance of his discovery.
The Skaloti population was almost certainly found in 1987 by Dr Walter Strasser, of Steffisburg, Switzerland, who recorded a Daphne, which he identified as D. oleoides, from ‘Schlucht nordl. Skaloti 6stl. Hora Sfakion ca. 200 m/M 2.IV [1987]’ (Strasser, 1988). It seems safe to assume that this was a misidentification since
Map 2. Distributions ofDufihnejusmineu (A) undD. gnidioides ( 0 ) in Crete.
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D. jasminea is moderately frequent in the lower part of the gorge, while the nearest known populations of D . oleoides occur at much higher altitudes in the Lefka Ori mountain massif to the west.
Cretan Daphne jasminea was probably observed for the first time over 75 years ago, at Patsianos, by Cousturier, whose record was the basis of one of Gandoger’s records of D . gnidioides. The occur- rence of both species at Patsianos, at least formerly, should not be ruled out, but if Cousturier and Gandoger were indeed mistaken, it is ironic that genuine D . gnidioides was awaiting discovery only 7 km to the east (cf. Turland, 1991).
There are now five localities known for D . j a s m i n e a in Crete (see Map 2), all of them in the western part of the island, and south of the north-south watershed; the altitudinal range is 50-600 m. The distribution of the species can be expressed in more detail by citing the herbarium specimens which have been studied.
HERBARIUM SPECIMENS SEEN. GREECE: Nom. Fokida: Delfi, Sibthorp s.n. (BM, OXF[photographs]); Delfi, tourist pavilion, 16 Nov. 1973, Brickell 63’ Muthew 8 150 (K) . Nom. Evvia: Evvia [ ‘Euboea’], Aucher-Eloy 25 18 (K) . Nom. Korinthia: Perahora [ lo km N of Korinthos], slopes above the sea, 27 April 1990, Townsend 90/126 (K); coast 1 km E of Shinos [16.5 km NE of Korinthos], 20 Sept. 1993, Turlund 676 (BM). Nom. Attiki-Pireas: Egosthena [20 km NNW of Megara], c. 1930, Guiol s.n. (BM); ‘Kaki- Scala’ [on coast W of Megara], 12 June 1929, Guiol 445 (BM); same locality, 15 June 1937, Lemperg 501 (K); same locality, May 1954, Hodgkin s.n. (K); Megara, ‘Scironian rocks’, March 1930, Atchley 1190 (K); same locality, July 1930, Atchley 184 (K); same locality, June 1936, Atchley s.n. (K); same locality, April 1939, Atchley 1866 (K); same locality, 1 April 1962, Money-Coutts 262 (BM). CRETE: Ep. Selinos: 8 km NNE of Sougia, upper part of Agia Irini gorge, 25 Oct. 1989, Turlund 102 (BM). Ep. Sfakia: 0.5 km W of coastal village of Agia Roumeli, 17 July 1989, Chillon s.n. (BM); Eligias gorge 2 km E of Agia Roumeli, 11 April 1991, Turlund 416 (BM); Patsianos, small valley immediately W of lowermost part of Kallikratianos gorge, 22 April 1990, Chillon 63’ Turlund 21 1 (BM); lower part of gorge 0.5 km NE of Skaloti, 17 April 1991, Turlund 418 (BM). LIBYA: Cyrenaica: ‘Cirene: U. Buten’, 18 April 1933, Pumpunini 5326 (BM, K); rocky limestone gully below Cyrene (Shahat) ruins, 26 March 1970, Davis 50059 (K); rocky wadi near base of second scarp near Apollonia on Cyrene road [foot of deep gorge near Apollonia], 4 April 1939, Sundwith 2336 (= Simpson 39288) (BM, K); Wadi Derna, 8 April 1939, Sundwith 2491 (= Simpson 39444) (BM, K); escarpment about 3 km SW of Derna, 22 Sept. 1951, Gimingham CY 61 (K); Derna, 12 April 1887, Tuubert 269 (BM, K); Derna, 29 August 1912, Vuccuri 39 (BM).
122 0 Bcntham-Moxon Trust 1994.