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Aquatic Botany, 44 (1993) 407-409
ElsevierSciencePublishersB.V.,Amsterdam
Short Communication
Nymphaea mexicana Zuccarini in the Iberian Peninsula Pablo Garcia-Murillo Departamento de Biologia Vegetaly Ecologia, Universidadde Sevilla. 41071 Sevilla, Spain ( Accepted i 0 August 1992 )
ABSTRACT Garcia-Murillo, P., 1993. Nymphaea mexicana Zuccarini in the Iberian Peninsula. Aquat. Bot., 44: 407-409.
Nymphaea mexicana Zuccarini, a species from southern USA and Mexico, is reported for the first time from the Iberian Peninsula. A brief description of the site and taxonomical characteristics are given.
In July 1985 a population of a species of Nymphaea was located near Finca de Sagrajas farm (Badajoz province, southwest Spain ) growing in Arroyo Cabrera, a tributary of the Guadiana River. The plant was markedly different from N. alba L. (the only species in this genus known in the Iberian Peninsula; S~nchez, 1987) in having crenated leaves and yellow flowers. Each time that the population was revisited in subsequent years (August 1989, July 1990 and July 1991 ) it was found to be in bloom, with plants bearing buds as well as open and senescing flowers, but no sign of fruits. Voucher specimens have been deposited at the University of SeviUa Herbarium (SEV). Specimens in this population did not correspond with any of the European taxa, either native or naturalized, of Nymphaea from the northern (Casper and Kxausch, 1981 ) and the circummediterranean region (Greuter et al., 1989). According to the monograph by Conard (1905) the plants have been identified as Nymphaea mexicana Zuccarini, a taxon included in subgenus Nymphaea L. (Castalia DC.); see Table 1 for diagnostic features. This species is distributed throughout southern USA (Louisiana, Texas and Florida) Correspondence to: P. Garcia-Murillo, Departamento de Biologia Vegetal y Ecologia, Universidad de Sevilla, 41071 Sevilla, Spain.
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P. GARCIA-MURILLO
TABLE I Taxonomic features ofNymphaea mexicana from Arroyo Cabrera
LEA VES (N= 20) Leaf blade diamater (mm) Sinus (ram) Leaf margin Petiole air canals Upper surface colour Under surface colour FLOWERS (N= 12 ) Flower opening time Flower tiiameter (ram) Flower length (ram) Sepal number Sepal colour Sepal nerves Sepal size (ram) Petal number Petal colour Petal nerves Outer petal size (mm) Middle petal size (mm) Inner petal size (mm) Stamen number Stamen colour Outer anther size (ram) Outer filament size (ram) Middle anther size (ram) Middle filament size (mm) Inner anther size (mm) Inner filament size (mm) Number of carpels
170-195 70-75 crenate 5 green purple (green in aerial leaves) diurnal 70-110 50-75 4 green with hyaline margin 11-13 (inconspicuously) 51-75× 10-22 23-27 yellow 7-11 (inconspicuous) 66-78× 11-18 45-68×9-;3 29-47 X 7-13 56-61 yellow 24-41 X4-7 7-10 X 2-4 9-25 X 2-3 4- I 0 × 2-3 7-10× 2 3-5x2 7-9 (completely fused)
and Mexico (Wood, 1959). The plant is also used as an ornamental in some European gardens (Alexander, 1989). To my knowledge, there is no information on its naturalization in Europe prior this report. The studied population inhabits a stream 35-75 m'wide and 0.8-3.0 m deep, with neutral soft water of the sulphate type. The bottom of the stream is sandy and water runs ~,,~ry slowly. The population spreads along 4 km of the fiver and completely covers the surface in many places. Other macrophytes appearing where the Nyt,':.l:,haeaplants are less developed include Ceraiophyllum demersum L., Lemna mi~wr L. and Spirodela polyrhiza (L.)
NYMPHAEAMEXICANAZUCCARINI Schleiden. In aerial photographs taken in 1987 the population appears extensive, which has since been confirmed by visits to the site. Rivas Goday (1964) provided some releves from Arroyo Cabrera near our study zone, but m a d e no reference to this Nymphaea. Accordiag to agriculturists in the area the species has lived there for a long time; some persons date its occurrence from the 1970s. Nymphaea mexicana often spreads vegetativeb" through propagules (Conard, 1905; Wood, 1959; Wiersema, 1988 ), so it is likely that the reported population is in fact a clone that persists only by asexual means.
REFERENCES
Alexander, J.C.M., 1989. Nymphaea L. In: S.M. Waiters, J.C.M. Alexander, A. Brady, C.D. Briekell, J. C~llen, P.S. Green, V.H. Heywood, V.A. Mattews, N.B.K. Robson, P.F. Yeo and S.G. Knees (Editors), The European Garden Flora 3. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 400-404. Casper, S.J. and Krausch, H.D., 1981.NymphaeaL. In: H. Ettl et al. (Editors), Siisswasserflora von Mitteleuropa, 24, Bd(Z). Fischer, Stuttgart, pp. 459-470. Conard, H.S., 1905. The waterlilies: a monograph of the genus Nymphaea. Publ. Carnegie Inst. Wash., 5: 1-279. Greuter, H., Burdet, H.M. and Long, G., 1989. Med-Checklist 4, Conservatoir et Jardin Botaniques, Ville de Gen~ve Med-ChecldistTrust o~'Optima, Gen~ve, 246 pp. Rivas Goday, S., 1964. Vegetaci6ny Fl6rula de la cuenca extremefia del Guadiana (Vegetaci6n y F16rulade la provincia de Badajoz). Publ. Diput. Prov. Badajoz, Badajoz, 777 pp. S~inchez,J., 1987.NymphaeaL. In: S. Castroviejo, M. Lainz, G. L6pez Gonz~lez, P. Monserrat, E Mufioz Garmendia, J. Faiva and L. Villar (Editors), Flora Ib~rica 1. Real Jardin Botfinico, C.S.I.C., Madrid, pp. 207-211. Wiersema, J.H., 1988. Reproductive biology of Nymph:zea (Nymphaeaceae). Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard., 75: 795-804. Wood, C.E., 1959. The genera of the Nymphaeaceae and Ceratophyllaceaein the southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arbor., 40:94-112.