Taxonomic revision of Rubus ser. Pallidi in Hungary and adjacent regions.

The apomictic taxa of section Rubus, subsection Hiemales E. H. L. Krause, series Pallidi W. C. R. Watson occurring in Hungary and adjacent regions are herein revised based on comprehensive field studies and herbarium revisions. The standard batological literature did not previously confirm the occurrence of this series in the region. However, the revision revealed that a formerly overlooked taxon grows in Hungary, which is described herein as a new species under the name Rubus saladiensis. In addition, we placed another regional species, R. brunneri, which was formerly included in ser. Vestiti, in ser. Pallidi. We present diagnostic features, drawings and photographs of both species plus characteristics of their habitats, distribution maps and lists of the specimens revised. Rubus saladiensis occurs in Illyrian Aremonio-Fagion forest communities in the Zala Hills (SW Hungary). Rubus brunneri is typically found in the region with beech forests and scattered acidic Scots pine-oak stands in the border region of Austria, Hungary and Slovenia. The presence of other taxa from this series reported in the region was not confirmed by herbarium vouchers so these records are treated as misinterpretations. The ranges of both R. brunneri and R. saladiensis have distinct sub-Atlantic characteristics in the Pannonian Basin. The climate in their distribution area (hills along the Rába and Mura rivers in the south-western part of the basin) is humid, precipitation-rich and similar in many aspects to that in the western foothills of the Alps. We demonstrate that the occurrence of the ser. Pallidi in the Pannonian Basin is of geobotanical importance and the species presented here have a distribution in the region unlike that of other series in the subgenus Rubus.