Proposals (33–34) to conserve the name Poo-Astragalion and to conserve the name Poo-Astragaletum sesamei with a conserved type, and requests (5–7) for a binding decision on the name-giving taxa in the same names and the inversion of the name Poo-Astragaletum sesamei

Abstract

The alliance name Poo-Astragalion has been widely used by Iberian phytosociologists for nearly fifty years to indicate a type of sheep pastures thriving on base-rich substrates. This alliance is currently classified in the order Poetalia bulbosae and class Poetea bulbosae. However, the revision of its original diagnosis highlights that this alliance name must be considered as an alternative name to the largely disused name Medicagini-Brachypodion distachyi. In order to stabilize the nomenclature, we propose the conservation of the traditionally used name Poo-Astragalion. On the other hand, the type association of the alliance (Poo-Astragaletum sesamei) turns out to be a superfluous name for another association neglected in the syntaxonomical literature, the Astragalo scorpioidis-Medicaginetum truncatulae. Hence, with the same objective of stabilizing the nomenclature, we propose the designation of a conserved neotype for the Poo-Astragaletum sesamei and the conservation of this name against the earlier heterotypic synonym in case of union of both associations. At the same time, we propose to complete the two names Poo-Astragalion and Poo-Astragaletum sesamei by selecting Poa bulbosa and Astragalus sesameus as the name-giving taxa, and to invert the name Poo-Astragaletum in accordance with its neotype (Astragalo sesamei-Poetum bulbosae). (33) Poo-Astragalion Rivas Goday et Ladero 1970: 165–169, nom. cons. propos. Typus: Poo-Astragaletum sesamei Rivas-Goday et Ladero 1970: 166–170 (holotypus). (≡) Medicagini-Brachypodion distachyi Rivas-Goday et Rivas-Martínez in Rivas Goday et Ladero 1970: 165–166 (alternative name) [original form: “Medicago-Brachypodion”] (34) Poo-Astragaletum sesamei Rivas-Goday et Ladero 1970: 166–170, nom. cons. et typus cons. propos. [original forms: “Poo-Astragaletum”, ”Poeto-Astragaletum sesamei”] Typus cons. propos.: neotypus hoc loco (see below). (=) Astragalo scorpioidis-Medicaginetum truncatulae Rivas Goday et Borja 1959 nom. corr. [original form: Astragalo scorpioidis-Medicaginetum tribuloidis nom. inept. (Rivas Goday and Borja 1959: 475, table 2)] Taxonomic reference: Euro+Med (2023). Syntaxonomic reference: Mucina et al. (2016). Abbreviations: EVC = EuroVegChecklist (Mucina et al. 2016); ICPN = 4th edition of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (Theurillat et al. 2021).