The genus Aurinia Desv. (Brassicaceae) in ZA and ZAHO herbaria

This paper presents the collection of the genus Aurinia Desv. species in ZA and ZAHO herbaria. The revision and the analyses of the material are presented. Herbarium specimens from these two herbaria were digitized and the data from the original herbarium labels were inserted in the Flora Croatica Database. A total of 203 herbarium sheets were digitized and nine taxa ( A. corymbosa Griesb., A. leucadea (Guss.) K. Koch ssp. leucadea , A. leucadea (Guss.) K. Koch ssp. media (Host) Plazibat, A. petraea (Ard.) Schur, A. petraea (Ard.) Schur ssp. microcarpa (Vis.) Plazibat, A. saxatilis (L.) Desv., A. saxatilis (L.) Desv. ssp. orientalis (Ard.) T. R. Dudley, A. saxatilis (L.) Desv. ssp. saxatilis , A. sinuata (L.) Griseb.) were registered within studied collections. The specimens originate from 16 European countries and the majority of herbarium sheets were collected in Croatia. The majority of specimens were collected between 1900s and 1950s. The comparison between the recorded distribution data in the Flora Croatica Database and the distribution based on herbarium specimens is made and the herbarium specimens generally well represent the distribution range of studied taxa.


• • • T h e g e n u s A u r i n i a D e s v . ( B r a s s i c a c e a e ) i n Z A a n d Z A H O h e r b a r i a P R I L O Z I P O Z N A V A N J U F L O R E H R V A T S K E | C O N T R I B U T I O N S T O T H E K N O W L E D G E O F T H E C R O A T I A N F L O R
. Morphologically, the species within the genus are perennial herbs with erect to ascending stems and with an indumentum of short-stalked to subsessile 7-12-rayed trichomes.
Recent phylogenetic studies of the tribe Alysseae revealed that the relationships among and delimitation of extant Aurinia species are not resolved and are hampered by incongruences between nuclear and plastid DNA data, probably as a result of hybridisation or incomplete lineage sorting (Rešetnik et al. 2013). Therefore further research focusing on phylogeny of the genus, delimitation of species boundaries, diversification of all species and their individual phylogeographic histories is in progress.
As a part of this studies, a revision and the analyses of the herbarium specimens in ZA and ZAHO herbaria were done. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to: 1) determine the number, origin and the age of herbarium sheets, and 2) provide comparison between their recorded natural distributions in Croatia and the distribution data based on herbarium specimens.

Materials and methods
In 2018

Results and discussion
In total, 203 herbarium sheets were found within the two herbaria, with 170 sheets stored in ZA and 33 sheets stored in ZAHO (Table 1). The highest number of sheets, 79 in total, belonged to A. sinuata, 77 and 2 in ZA and ZAHO, respectively (Table 1).
The herbarium specimens originate from 16 European countries and the majority of herbarium sheets were collected in Croatia (120 sheets i.e. 59.1%), followed by Macedonia (26 sheets) and Montenegro (11 sheets    and Montenegro, although it is also distributed throughout Albania and mainland Greece (Fig. 2).

All other four species are included in Index Florae
Croaticae (Nikolić 1996).     to some extent geographically separated (Persson 1971). According to the FCD data and Index Florae

n Z A a n d Z A H O h e r b a r i a P R I L O Z I P O Z N A V A N J U F L O R E H R V A T S K E | C O N T R I B U T I O N S T O T H E K N O W L E D G E O F T H E C R O A T I A N F L O R
Croaticae (Nikolić 1996) orientalis (Plazibat 2006(Plazibat , 2009 Persson (1971). Therefore, until the occurrence of A. saxatilis, both in north-western continental Croatia and along the coast, is confirmed and demonstrated with reliable herbarium specimens, the species should be excluded from the Croatian flora. The data presented here is the starting point for the ongoing detailed study on the phylogeny, phylogeography and taxonomy of the genus Aurinia which is currently in progress. Extensive herbarium material throughout the distribution range is being collected within the current study and it will be incorporated in ZA collection, thus providing more recent material. The preliminary results obtained thus far indicate that some taxonomical and nomenclature changes will most probably be needed, therefore an update to the current data in FCD and Index Florae Croaticae can be expected in the near future.

Ack nowledgements
This work was supported by Unity Through Knowledge Fund under the project "Nextgeneration systematics of the south-eastern European genus Aurinia (Brassicaceae): evolution and phylogeography of an intricate plant group".