BOTANISTS at Alicante University have identified two as-yet unknown carnivorous plants growing wild in different mountain ranges in Spain.
One of these, the Pinguicula Tejedensis, is native to the Tejeda and Almijara mountain ranges in the province of Granada, and the other, the Pinguicula Casperiana, is found in the central mountains between the provinces of Cuenca and Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha).
The pinguicula family is commonly known as the 'butterwort', and the first variety identified has been named after the Tejeda mountains, whilst the second has been baptised in homage to the German taxonomist Siegfried J. Casper, a world specialist in this type of carnivorous shrubs.
Alicante botanists have been researching the taxonomy and conservation of Iberian and northern African pinguiculae for some years, and say they usually grow out of rock faces, normally with a chalky surface, in water pockets or spongy calcium carbonate deposits and at a very specific altitude.
“These are very scarce environments, very localised and exclusive, and act as real islands where the processes of differentiation and species division are extremely active,” the university team explains.
“Both plants have been known about since time immemorial in the mountains where they live, but they have long been confused with other species of a similar morphology – those typical of the Subbetic and Maestrat [Teruel province and the south-east in the first case, and Castellón province in the second] mountain ranges in the east of the country.
“But our genetic research has shown that these plants belong to a different lineage – they are little or nothing like the species they have been thought to be, which is what led us to re-evaluate their morphological features, or the characteristics which differentiate between species in this plant genus.”
They will now need to keep a close eye on the plants to ensure they do not become an endangered species.
“We mustn't forget that, as is the case with the majority of Pinguiculae, the species we've now identified live in habitats which are extraordinarily fragile and rare, and depend directly upon the presence of permanent water sources in the rocks – so climate change and human activity could put their survival in danger,” the researchers reveal.
“Unexpected reductions in rainfall, or artificial changes that affect the flow of natural springs or underground water pockets, could cause these types of a plant – real natural gems – to disappear for good; for their sake, we need to take the right conservation measures that guarantee their survival long term.”
One of the plants identified – it has not been confirmed which – is pictured above, in the photograph taken by the Alicante University botany team.
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