3. Dioscorea cretica (L.) Campos, Wilkin & Viruel,comb. nov. (= Clade DC2)
Basionym: Tamus cretica L., Sp. Pl., 1028. 1753.
= Tamus communis L. subsp. cretica (L.) Kit Tan, Notes
Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 41(1): 47. 1983.
– Neotype (designated by Kit Tan in Davis, 1984, as isotype, corrected
by Jarvis, 2007): ”Habitat in Creta”, Herb. Tournefort no. 283
(P-00665856!).
Perennial herb, glabrous. Leaves deeply trilobate, or apex or basal
lobes elongated from a cordate leaf, up to 70 × 70 mm, with 3-9
prominent main nerves and secondary reticulated nerves not visible. Male
inflorescence branched, to 25 cm long with up to 50 flowers in total,
short female inflorescence up to 7 cm with 1–6 urceolate,
greenish-yellow flowers. Fruit a globose berry, 7–11 × 6–10 mm,
reddish-orange. Pollen grains (Supplementary Data Figure S8) with two
apertures with longer axis up to 36 µm and shorter axis up to 29 µm.
Perforated with 0.5 perforations per µm and perforation size up to 1.2
µm, without spines. Eastern Mediterranean. 2n = unknown.