Contribuţii Botanice – 2019, LIV: 91-97 DOI: 10.24193/Contrib.Bot.54.6 Grădina Botanică “Alexandru Borza” Cluj-Napoca FIRST RECORD OF FESTUCA AMETHYSTINA L. FROM THE TRANSYLVANIAN BASIN (ROMANIA) Jan ROLEČEK 1,2 , Pavel DŘEVOJAN 1 , Petr ŠMARDA 1 1 Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, CZ-611 37 Brno, Czech Republic 2 Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Department of Vegetation Ecology, Lidická 25/27, CZ-657 20 Brno, Czech Republic e-mail: honza.rolecek@centrum.cz Abstract: Here we report the first find of a rare grass Festuca amethystina L. in the Transylvanian Basin. The species was found at Dealul Furcilor, a hill that is part of SCI Movilele de la Păucea near the city of Mediaş, in tall-forb vegetation classified as Trollio europaei-Clematidetum recti association. Using flow cytometry we detected tetraploid ploidy level of this population, corresponding to the ploidy of populations in middle altitudes of the Braşov Depression and contrasting with the diploid ploidy level of the high-montane populations in Eastern and Southern Carpathians. We show that sites of tetraploid populations share many species of dry-mesic steppe meadows and subcontinental open-canopy oak forests. Co-occurrence of F. amethystina and other species with disjunct distributions suggest relict character of this vegetation, probably representing remnants of ancient forest- steppe ecosystem. Keywords: genome size, plant distribution, ploidy level, relict, tall-forb vegetation, taxonomy, Transylvanian Basin, Trifolio-Geranietea sanguinei, vegetation ecology, vegetation history Introduction Festuca amethystina L. is a grass of open and semi-open habitats with a highly uneven distribution within its range. It is broadly distributed in the montane and subalpine habitats of the Alps, Carpathians and Balkan mountain ranges, while it is scattered or rare elsewhere, particularly in the lowlands and hilly landscapes of Central Europe [16, 22]. It is classified as a rare species in Romania [27] and included in Red Lists also in other countries, e.g. Hungary [17], Czech Republic [10] and Poland [14]. It prefers mesic to dry-mesic grasslands and open canopy forests (mostly Pinus- or Quercus-dominated) on base-rich to moderately base-rich soils, often developed over limestones, other calcareous sediments or ultramafic rocks. In Romania, F. amethystina occurs mainly in the high-montane and subalpine grasslands of the Eastern and Southern Carpathians [1, 5, 8]. Recently it was reported also from submontane open-canopy oak forests of the Braşov Depression [12]. While the high-montane and subalpine populations in Romania seem to be diploid, those in lower altitudes are tetraploid [28]. Although such ploidy differentiation in Festuca usually reflects different taxonomic status [e.g. 15], taxonomic consequences of ploidy variation in F. amethystina, particularly the relation to the four recognized subspecies [18, 21], as yet remain unresolved [28]. Here we report the first find of F. amethystina in the Transylvanian Basin, together with data on its ploidy and accompanying vegetation. We discuss several related taxonomic and ecological issues in the broad geographical context.