Biologia 65/5: 832—836, 2010 Section Botany DOI: 10.2478/s11756-010-0103-x Nomenclatural types of Picea abies syntaxa reported from Slovakia Peter Kučera Botanical Garden of Comenius University, Detached unit in Blatnica, SK-03815 Blatnica 315, Slovakia; e-mail: peter.kucera@rec.uniba.sk Abstract: The paper includes assignation of nomenclatural types to Slovak syntaxa dominated naturally by Picea abies, i.e. to 1 order (Athyrio filicis-feminae-Piceetalia Hadač ex Hadač et al. 1969) and 14 associations and 5 subassociations of the alliances Piceion excelsae Pawlowski ex Pawlowski et al. 1928, Athyrio alpestris-Piceion Sýkora 1971, Oxalido-Piceion Hadač et al. 1969 and Chrysanthemo rotundifolii-Piceion (Krajina 1933) Hadač et al. 1969. The association name Avenello-Piceetum excelsae Hadač et al. 1969 is validated. Essential syntaxonomical notes to syntaxa Athyrio alpestris-Piceion, Calamagrostio villosae-Piceetum are included as well as nomenclatural comments to Vaccinio-Piceetea and Athyrio-Piceetalia. Key words: Athyrio alpestris-Piceion, Athyrio-Piceetalia, Chrysanthemo-Piceion, Oxalido-Piceion, Piceion excelsae, Vaccinio-Piceetea. Introduction The application of a name of a syntaxon is deter- mined by means of its nomenclatural type (Weber et al., 2000: 750). Assignation of nomenclatural types pro- vides clearer solution of questions of mutual syntaxo- nomical position of various units. From the territory of Slovakia, there are recognized several associations and higher syntaxa of the phytocoenoses dominated byPicea abies: the list of syntaxa of the class Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.-Bl. et al. 1939 prepared by Šomšák (in Mucina et al., 1985: 217–219) was the essential work for many authors till present. Recent version of accepted syntaxa from the territory of Slovakia was published by Jarolímek et al. (2008). Prevailing part of Slovak spruce-dominated syntaxa lack their own nomenclatu- ral types as they were published before the year 1979 (cf. Weber et al., 2000: 747, Art. 5). The aim of this contribution is to publish a complete list of nomenclat- ural types of Picea abies syntaxa accepted recently from Slovakia. Material and methods Nomenclatural types for syntaxa are chosen according to the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (ICPN) published by Weber et al. (2000). Nomenclatural types are set only for vegetation units with natural domi- nance or naturally high abundance of Picea abies from the syntaxa list of the class Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.- Bl. et al. 1939 in Jarolímek et al. (2008: 321–322). Nomen- clatural evaluation of the names according to the ICPN is added, too. Due to the aim of this contribution, it was not possible here to publish proposals on syntaxonomical evalu- ation of Picea abies woodlands of the Western Carpathi- ans (e.g., Chrysanthemo-Piceion). The only exception is the alliance Athyrio alpestris-Piceion since the alliance was wrongly classified into Athyrio-Piceetalia of Hadač (1962; cf. Hadač et al. 1969) as early as by its description by Sýkora (1971). Used names of plant taxa follow the checklist of Marhold et al. (1998). Results Notes on accepted syntaxa names Before the list of nomenclatural types will be given, several important remarks should be presented: The class Piceetea excelsae Klika 1948: Although the class name Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.-Bl. et al. 1939 is widely used, the name was not published validly: the subordinated order Gaultherio- Piceetalia was a nomen nudum in the place of pub- lication (cf. Braun-Blanquet et al., 1939: 2) and the manner of creation of the other subordinated order name Vaccinio-Piceetalia does not correspond to the rules of ICPN – Art. 3m (→ Art. 25, paragraph 1) (cf. Braun-Blanquet et al., 1939: 4 – “In der Ordnung der Vaccinio-Piceetalia sind die zwei fr¨ uher unterschiede- nen Ordnungen der Piceetalia excelsae (Pawlowski 1928) und der Rhodoreto-Vaccinietalia (Br.-Bl 1926) zusammengefaßt.”). Thus, the name Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. in Br.-Bl. et al. 1939, nom. inval. (Art. 2b) is rejected and the newer more appropriate name Piceetea excelsae Klika 1948 should be accepted in phytosocio- logical works. Ad 1.1. Piceion excelsae Paw lowski ex Pawlowski et al. 1928 incl. Athyrio alpestris-Piceion Sýkora 1971: The alliance Athyrio alpestris-Piceion Sýkora 1971 was classified by Sýkora (1971: 44) into the order Athyrio-Piceetalia Hadač 1962. However, the second c 2010 Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences