New Easternmost Locality of Phelipanche bohemica in South Poland

Abstract

Phelipanche bohemica (Čelak.) Holub is a species with a narrow geographic range that is limited to Central Europe and a few regions in western and southern Europe. Taxonomic complexities within the Phelipanche purpurea s. l. group (to which the species belongs) cause difficulties in fully describing its range. In Poland, to date, this species has been known only from two verified localities in the Lower Oder Valley and Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. A new site was found in 2020 in Korzecko near Chęciny (Świętokrzyskie Mountains, Małopolska Upland, southern Poland). According to the present state of knowledge, this is the easternmost locality of this species. This species was found in xerothermic grasslands of the Festuco-Brometea class. In 2020, 18 individuals were found. However, in 2021 only two individuals were present, and in 2022 only one. Thus, the population showed the dynamics typically observed in this group of plants. As a population of a globally very rare species, located at the edge of it range in an unstable phytocoenosis, it should be subject to monitoring and special protection.