A hotspot of endemism: Oreophytic Taraxacum species (Compositae, Crepidinae) in the mountains of Bulgaria Author Štěpánek, Jan 0000-0003-4038-1998 Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, CZ- 25243 Průhonice 1, Czech Republic. & jan. stepanek @ ibot. cas. cz; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0003 - 4038 - 1998 jan.stepanek@ibot.cas.cz Author Kirschner, Jan 0000-0002-6303-713X Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, CZ- 25243 Průhonice 1, Czech Republic. & jan. kirschner @ ibot. cas. cz; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 6303 - 713 X jan.kirschner@ibot.cas.cz text Phytotaxa 2022 2022-10-20 569 1 1 139 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.569.1.1 journal article 172051 10.11646/phytotaxa.569.1.1 f8f7b3a8-119f-438c-95d6-5d701a007727 1179-3163 7235182 Taraxacum paludosiforme Doll (1978: 633 , Plate LXXII), described as a member of T. sect. Alpina Type indication:—“Typus: Holotypus im h Doll / Locus typicus: Borovez, Flachmoor, ca. 2000 m . 12. 7. 76. Doll“; also Plate LXXII: „ Taraxacum paludosiforme Doll sp. nov. – Holotypus ”. Type :— Flora von Bulgarien , Rila-Gebirge , Sitnjakow-Hütte – Mussala , Flachmoor , 12 Jul [19]76, R . Doll [as Taraxacum paludosiforme sp. nov. Holotypus ! ] ( JE , no. det. 19063, upper specimen, lectotype , designated here ) . Specimens of the OM:—The OM consists of a single rich gathering, mounted on four herbarium sheets. Although the whole gathering may be homogeneous taxonomically, there are several plants that cannot be interpreted (incomplete, not well preserved). The sheet I bears two plants photographed on Plate LXXII, the upper of them is designated as the lectotype ; it is polliniferous, with a perfectly regular pollen. The lower plant on Sheet I is an isolectotype (JE, no. det. 36143). Sheet II , with one flowering and two fruiting plants (pollen abundant, regular in size). Sheet III, again with one flowering and two fruiting plants (pollen abundant, regular in size). Sheet IV , with three fruiting plants. Conclusion:—The majority of plants of the type gathering of T. paludosiforme belong to a single species, a widespread diploid sexual, referred to T. sect. Crocea in the present paper. It is a variable taxon (see also the text in the special part of this paper below). We sampled it at very numerous localities, both in the subalpine and alpine belts in the Rila and the Pirin Mts., and it locally represents a Taraxacum dominant there. This taxon appears under several names in Doll (1978) : T. paludosiforme (erroneously reported as a non-polliniferous tetraploid by Doll), T. pseudovernelense (again erroneously reported as a non-polliniferous tetraploid but having abundant, perfectly regular pollen), here relegated to the synonymy of T. paludosiforme ; an accepted name, T. carinthiacum (reported to be a triploid but having a perfectly regular pollen), and T. helveticum (correctly annotated as having regular pollen but reported to be both diploid and tetraploid; the gathering consists of a mixture of two diploids, T. bulgaricum and T. paludosiforme ).