Acta Horti Bot. Bucurest. 2017, 44: 5-16 DOI: 10.1515/ahbb-2017-0001 MEUM ATHAMANTICUM (APIACEAE) IN THE EASTERN CARPATHIANS, ROMANIA SÎRBU Culiță 1* , SAMUIL Costel 1 , OPREA Adrian 2 Abstract: Meum athamanticum, from the Apiaceae family, was first reported in Romania in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. However, due to the lack of voucher specimens in herbaria (or of information about them) and the fact that it has not been further found in the localities before mentioned in the literature, the occurrence of this species in Romania has long been controversial or even denied. In this paper, we have reported the discovery of M. athamanticum in the Eastern Carpathians of Romania, in the area of the Oituz Pass (Covasna county), 77 years after the last record in the country. According to our data, this is the only known place from Romania where this species can be found nowadays. The species is highly threatened due to the intensive anthropogenic impact in the area and the very small number of individuals. Consequently, the authors propose the establishment of a special protected area, and including Meum athamanticum as a Critical Endangered (CR) species, in a possible future edition of the Romanian Red Book of vascular plants. Key words: new record, rare plants, Oituz Pass, Red Book, spignel, threatened species Received 13 November 2017 Accepted 23 November 2017 Introduction Meum Miller, Gard. Dict. Abridg. Ed 4 (1754), is a monotypic genus of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) (Tutin 1968, Leute 1969). The distribution center of the only species of the genus, Meum athamanticum Jacq., Fl. Austr. 4: 2, t. 303 (1776) (spignel), is represented by the western, central and southern European high mountains, extending locally to the north-western and eastern Europe (Spinner 1931, Leute 1969, Hegi 1965, Tutin 1968, Villar 2003, Huck et al. 2009) and the North of Africa (Villar 2003). In eastern Europe, it is distributed in isolated patches of the Balkan Mountains (Spinner 1931, Leute 1969, Hegi 1965, Tutin 1968, Villar 2003, Huck et al. 2009), Polish Carpathians (Huck et al. 2009), Ukrainian Carpathians (Chornogora) (Tsaryk 1997), as well as in the Romanian Carpathians (as it will be discussed below). In addition to the type subspecies (athamanticum), with the widest distribution in Europe, two other subspecies are endemic in the Iberian Peninsula, namely: subsp. labranum (Gdgr.) Leute and subsp. nevadense (Boiss.) Drude (Leute 1969). According to the literature (Hegi 1965, Tutin 1968, Leute 1969), M. athamanticum is a perennial, aromatic plant. Stem glabrous, striate, ± erect, up to 60 cm 1 University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine “Ion Ionescu de la Brad”, Faculty of Agriculture, 700487 – Iaşi, Romania. 2 University “Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Botanic Garden “Anastasie Fătu”, 700487 – Iaşi, Romania. * Correspondence: culita69@yahoo.com; csirbu@uaiasi.ro