Research Article |
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Corresponding author: Yasaman Ranjbaran ( yasaman.ranjbaran@studenti.unipd.it ) Academic editor: Bin-Bin LIU
© 2025 Yasaman Ranjbaran, Marco Canella, Andreas Fleischmann, Nora Codato, Valentina Boscariol, Špela Pungaršek, Sara Natale, Francesco Dal Grande.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Ranjbaran Y, Canella M, Fleischmann A, Codato N, Boscariol V, Pungaršek Š, Natale S, Dal Grande F (2025) Temporal and spatial herbarium density of Favratia zoysii (Wulfen) Feer (Campanulaceae): Insights into type material and historical distribution of an alpine endemic. PhytoKeys 257: 235-245. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.257.147262
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Favratia zoysii (Wulfen) Feer is a chasmophyte endemic to the south-eastern Alps and the sole representative of the genus Favratia Feer. Its primary occurrences are in Julian Alps and on Mt. Storžič (Kamnik-Savinja Alps) in Slovenia. This study aims at elucidating the original material utilised by Wulfen in the initial description of Campanula zoysii, later reclassified as F. zoysii by Feer, while also exploring the temporal and spatial density of the species’ herbarium collections. To this end, we examined preserved collections from six institutions, including botanical gardens and museums. A total of 127 herbarium vouchers were analysed to identify the specimens referenced by Wulfen. This comprehensive examination of historical collections, spanning over two centuries, allowed us to designate a lectotype, thereby providing a clear typification of F. zoysii. Additionally, we analysed the frequency and geographic distribution of herbarium specimens, a concept referred to as temporal and spatial herbarium density. This combined typification and spatial-temporal analysis not only strengthens the taxonomic clarity of the species, but also provides valuable insights into its botanical history, distribution patterns and conservation needs.
Alpine flora, Campanula, chasmophytes, herbaria, typification
Favratia zoysii (Wulfen) Feer is an alpine chasmophytic species endemic to Slovenia, Austria and Italy, with a distribution limited to the south-eastern Alps. The species’ primary populations are concentrated in the Triglav Massif and the Kamnik-Savinja Alps in Slovenia. While the range extends further across the Julian Alps (encompassing Slovenia and Italy), the Karavanke Mountains (shared between Slovenia and Austria), the northern border of the Trnovo Forest Plateau (locally referred to as Trnovski gozd) and the Carnic Alps (
F. zoysii has captivated botanical interest since its discovery. It was described as Campanula zoysii Wulfen by Franz Xaver von Wulfen (1728–1805) (
Although classified as “Least Concern” by the IUCN Red List due to the demographic stability of its populations, F. zoysii occupies a relatively small area, with its area of occupancy estimated at less than 500 km2 (
Although populations of F. zoysii are generally stable, the species’ restricted distribution makes it particularly susceptible to environmental changes. Habitat disruption from climate change and land-use modifications pose significant threats. Specific risks include overgrazing by sheep at high altitudes and increased competition with other herbaceous species driven by the “greening” of mountain peaks (
Given the ecological significance of F. zoysii, it is striking that the species has not yet been typified. This study addresses that gap as part of a broader initiative aimed at typifying vascular plants described in the Italian Alps (e.g.
As a first step, diagnostic traits of the species were established, based on literature sources (
We accessed the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (2024a, b) to obtain an overview of both living occurrences and preserved specimens of the study species. Search queries included the accepted name (F. zoysii) and its synonym (C. zoysii). To create a comprehensive reference database, we employed a mixed-method approach. Starting with GBIF data (
The typification process adhered to
The GBIF living occurrences and human observations includes 131 georeferenced records. We added 138 occurrences, based on personal communications with local botanists and 22 entries provided by the Triglav National Park ranger service. This resulted in a comprehensive database comprising 291 georeferenced locations (Suppl. material
The GBIF dataset of preserved specimens contains 350 herbarium vouchers (
The resulting distribution of current living occurrences and the original sampling locations for the herbarium vouchers is shown in Fig.
In our database, 251 specimens have a recorded year of collection. The oldest specimen dates to 1788, while the most recent was collected in 2022, spanning a period of more than two centuries (Fig.
A total of 127 herbarium specimens were physically examined across six institutions, all containing promising candidates for typification (Table
| Herbarium name | Herbarium code | Location | Number of F. zoysii specimens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Botanische Staatssammlung Munchen | BSM | Munich (Germany) | 34 |
| Botanical Garden of Padova |
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Padua (Italy) | 2 |
| MUSE - Museo delle Scienze | TR | Trento (Italy) | 3 |
| Meise Herbarium | ME | Meise (Belgium) | 17 |
| Slovenian Museum of Natural History |
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Ljubljana (Slovenia) | 16 |
| Italian Central Herbarium | FI | Florence (Italy) | 55 |
| Total Herbarium vouchers | 127 | ||
Amongst these, 91 specimens included notes identifying the collector. Due to the small size of the plants, many herbarium sheets contained multiple individuals, resulting in a total of 251 individuals. The typification of Favratia zoysii (Wulfen) Feer has been formally defined as follows:
Favratia zoysii (Wulfen) Feer, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 12(5): 610 (1890)
“vom Storchez / in summitate montis Storchez” referring to the current locality Mount Storžič (46.3502353 N, 14.4047511 E, WGS 84). F.X. von Wulfen.lectotype designated here: M-0214994 / 629961 / 287462 3, (Fig.
The current occurrence of the species has been confirmed in the locus classicus during fieldworks in summer 2023 (Fig.
This extensive collection history provides an invaluable dataset for analysing changes in species distribution and broader ecological trends over time.
The temporal distribution of herbarium vouchers reveals a peak in collections between 1830 and 1880, a half-century that serves as a critical reservoir of metadata for historical studies. This rich repository of specimens forms a robust foundation for future research, particularly in investigating the impacts of climatic and anthropogenic changes on the species habitat.
GBIF data have proven to be a useful initial source of information regarding the current distribution of F. zoysii. The clear diagnostic characteristics of this species make it easily recognisable, with a very low chance to misidentification during the flowering period. This facilitates the validation of human observations from amateur botanists, mountaineers and plants enthusiasts. Consequently, occurrences from citizen-science initiatives, such as INaturalist, accessible via GBIF, represent an additional valuable source of data. However, we also have shown that GBIF data can be easily fostered through a network of collaborations though non-public repositories. In our case, we more than doubled the number of georeferenced locations through data requests to local botanists and a National Park authority. Similarly, we found that many herbaria still hold non-indexed herbarium vouchers. Direct requests to curators remain a valuable source of information on preserved collections. A recent study on 130 species of the genus Campanula (including F. zoysii as C. zoysii) highlighted that widely distributed species, such as C. rotundifolia and C. rapunculoides, are often the most common in preserved collections (
Type material was selected through a dataset of 461 herbarium vouchers with 128 physically examined. The selected voucher encloses two entire flowering individuals and two additional flowering ramets. All four entities are well preserved, with the diagnostic characters of the species clearly visible and easily recognisable. The newly-designated lectotype is stored at the Botanische Staatssammlung Munchen (BSM) and the scan of the voucher can be consulted via GBIF. The locus classicus has been shown to be abundantly populated by F. zoysii. The population found on Mount Storžič includes both flowering and seedling individuals, in contrast to many other locations visited during fieldwork in Triglav complex, Grintovec and Karavanke (unpublished data).
Regarding the distribution of F. zoysii, our study shows that all historical locations are supported by current occurrences. However, some modern populations, such as those in the Krn and Mahavšček complex in Slovenia, Eastern Karavanke in Austria, and Western Carnia in Italy, are under-represented in the preserved specimens. In contrast, the Triglav complex has been abundantly represented. The herbarium vouchers are concentrated in a limited number of major peaks. This clustering can be explained by the species’ highly-localised growing environment, which occurs almost exclusively on exposed cliffs near summits. Consequently, many of the georeferenced points overlap, forming clusters around the summits. Despite these geographical clustering, the herbarium vouchers span the full east-west and north-south distribution range of F. zoysii, covering the species’ entire natural range. The long collection history of living collections offers an invaluable dataset for examining changes in species distribution and other trends over time. The temporal distribution of the herbarium vouchers reveals it to be a valuable reservoir of plant material and metadata for historical and genetic studies of material, with a peak in collections between 1830 and 1880. This wealth of material presents a strong foundation for future research, particularly in understanding how the population genetics of this species have changed. In fact, the recent “Renaissance of herbaria” (
This study highlights the importance of herbarium collections not only for typification, but also as invaluable tools for assessing the long-term effects of environmental changes on species distribution. The metadata associated with these specimens, such as collection date, locality and habitat details, are crucial for evaluating the historical distribution of F. zoysii and determining whether shifts in elevational range or population size have occurred over time. By combining historical herbarium specimens with modern field data, researchers can assess potential extinctions or uncover areas where the species might have shifted its range. In addition, the comprehensive temporal and spatial dataset assembled here provides a foundation for future herbariomics research, enabling the exploration of genetic variability across centuries.
We would like to express our gratitude towards the Triglav National Park ranger service, for sharing the occurrences of the living population of Favratia zoysii.
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
No ethical statement was reported.
The Project was partially funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4, Component 2 Investment 1.4 – Call for tender No. 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by Decree n.3175 of 18 December 2021 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU; Award Number: Project code CN_00000033, Concession Decree No. 1034 of 17 June 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP C93C22002810006, Project title “National Biodiversity Future Center – NBFC.
Conceptualization: MC. Data curation: YR, SN, AF, ŠP. Investigation: NC, MC. Methodology: MC. Project administration: MC. Supervision: FDG. Validation: FDG, YR, VB. Visualization: MC, YR. Writing – original draft: MC, NC. Writing – review and editing: YR, VB, FDG.
Yasaman Ranjbaran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4682-4270
Marco Canella https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8548-4109
Andreas Fleischmann https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4917-4736
Nora Codato https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3976-6072
Valentina Boscariol https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4248-2364
Špela Pungaršek https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7783-2134
Sara Natale https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4406-4252
Francesco Dal Grande https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1865-6281
All of the data that support the findings of this study are available in the main text or Supplementary Information.
Supplementary data
Data type: xlsx
Explanation note: table S1_a. Dataset of the living occurrences with geographic coordinates of Favratia zoysii Wulfen. CountryCode and institutionCode are according GBIF.table S1_b. Dataset of the preserved specimens of Favratia zoysii Wulfen. CountryCode and institutionCode are according GBIF.