Rediscovery of the endemic species Chara rohlenae Vilh. 1912 (Characeae) - believed extinct - on the Balkan Peninsula

• Main Authors: Jelena Blaženčić, Branka Stevanović
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Belgrade 2018-02-01
• Series: Botanica Serbica
• Subjects: Charophyta; new records; endemic species; Chara rohlenae
• Online Access: http://botanicaserbica.bio.bg.ac.rs/arhiva/pdf/2018_42_1_706_full.pdf

The species Chara rohlenae was described more than a hundred years ago (in 1912) as a species new to science on the basis of herbarium specimens collected from the Mratinje locality in Montenegro. In addition, there were some other herbarium specimens of this charophyte originating from Greece (collected in 1885) and also ones from Bosnia and Herzegovina (collected in 1925), which, however, were taxonomically determined in different ways and not clearly identified as belonging to the species C. rohlenae. For such a long period of time thereafter, no new data on the presence of the given species in the Balkans were recorded, and for this reason the species was considered to be extinct (EX glob ?) in accordance with IUCN criteria. However, during botanical surveys conducted in 2010 and 2012, C. rohlenae was rediscovered on the Balkan Peninsula, in the Mokra Gora Mountain (a spur of the Prokletije massif) in Serbia. This finding confirms existence of the species in the wild. Morphological characteristics of the newly found specimens of C. rohlenae from Serbia are investigated in the present study.