Sonodrio Buttercup (Ranunculus fraelensis)
This species was described in 2010 during a revision of its genus; it was restricted to a locality near Sonodrio, a city in the Lombardy region of Italy.
The only known site of occurrence was inundated in 1953 after the construction of a dam. [1]
The Sonodrio Buttercup is a member of the Goldilocks Buttercup (Ranunculus auricomus L.) aggregation (see depiction below) which contains many hundreds more, very similar so-called agamospecies.
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References:
[1] Franz G. Dunkel: The Ranunculus auricomus L. complex (Ranunculaceae) in Northern Italy. Journal of Plant Taxonomy and geography 65(2): 179-227. 2010
[2] Thomas Abeli; Giulia Albani Rocchetti; Zoltan Barina; Ioannis Bazos; David Draper; Patrick Grillas; José María Iriondo; Emilio Laguna; Juan Carlos Moreno-Saiz; Fabrizio Bartolucci: Seventeen ‘extinct’ plant species back to conservation attention in Europe. Nature Plants 7: 282-286. 2021
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edited: 25.02.2024