Cyperus Eragrostis Lam. - A New Adventitious Species in the Flora of Slovenia

Cyperus EragrostisLam. - A New Adventitious Species in the Flora of SloveniaAbout ten years agoCyperus eragrostis, a species originating in the tropical parts of South America, settled in a trench near the house at Podsabotin 49 in the Goriška Brda. From there the plant spread to similar neighbouring ruderal sites with hydromorphic soil, to roadside ditches and gravelly banks of the Pevmica, a stream on the border between Slovenia and Italy. Applying the standard Central-European phytosociological method we studied the stands in which this species grows together with other hygrophilous and ruderal species. These stands are dominated by character species of the classesBidentetea tripartitae, Filipendulo-Convolvuletea, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea, Stellarietea mediaeandGalio-Urticetea. Cyperus eragrostisis a new adventitious species in the Slovenian flora. Its ephemeral occurrence in Slovenia was first noted in Istria in 2003 (near Portorož, probably in the Sečovlje salt-pans) and later in 2006 (Gračišče). Its presence in Podsabotin and along the Pevmica, however, is not merely transitional (ephemeral); here, this alien species is likely to have already naturalized in the environment with warm and relatively moist sub-Mediterranean climate.