Phelipanche cingularum Croze, Carlón, J. -M.Tison, Michaud, J.Molina & Moreno Mor., sp. nov. (Fig. 1–6)

Type:— FRANCE. Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: Majastres, Gorges de Trévans, place L’Eirouelle, 23 May 2023, T. Croze s. n. (Holotype AV!).

Diagnosis:—Plant up to 25 cm tall. Stem cream-coloured, sometimes slightly tinged with orange-brown at apex, simple or with few short branches stemming from its lower third, densely covered with white, retrorse hairs; leaves few, lanceolate to narrowly triangular; inflorescence long, at least the upper half of the stem, rather lax, the insertion of flowers being clearly visible at adult stage. Flowers erecto-patent; bracts similar to the leaves, lanceolate or narrowly triangular, much shorter than the adjacent flower, initially cream-coloured, then with a withered, brownish apex at the end of anthesis; calyx weakly pigmented, cream-coloured to pale orange-brown, with short subulate teeth and bracteoles, not reaching the half of the corolla; corolla 20–27 mm long, tubular-infundibuliform, densely hairy both internally and externally, with rather long glandular trichomes, light blue with darker longitudinal veins, dorsally markedly bent at c. 1/3 of its length, then uniformly curved with no subapical hump, ventrally straight; upper lip patent, bifid, with triangular, acute, irregularly dentate, conspicuously ciliate lobes; lower lip reaching 1/3 of the corolla length, trifid, with poorly divergent, spathulate, dentate, often apiculate lobes, and two prominent, whitish, densely hairy bumps between the lobes and the tube; stamens inserted at the level of the lower angulation of the corolla, c. 1/3 of its length; stamen filaments basally yellowish and densely covered with long hairs, distally bluishwhite and sparsely hairy; thecae white, mostly glabrous, acute; ovary ovoid, cream-coloured, glabrous; style white, increasingly bluish towards its apex, sparsely hairy throughout; stigma slightly bilobed, white.

Etymology:— the specific epithet is from a feminised late Latin form (genitive of cingula) derived of the classical Latin cingulum (belt), having given place to several words applied in southern France to grassy fringes surrounding limestone cliffs along its base or in ledges. It refers to the peculiar ecology of the plant grows on small flat rocky areas, or « vires » in French.

French name:— Phélipanche des vires.

Host:— Parasitises species of the Brassicaceae family, mainly Hesperis laciniata All. (Fig. 7), although it proves able to secondarily, but rarely, attack other Brassicaceae in the close vicinity of Hesperis, namely Biscutella lima, Pseudoturritis turrita and Erysimum spp. None of these taxa has been recorded as a specific host of Orobanchaceae until now (Sánchez Pedraja et al. 2005).

Habitat:— Sheltered limestone ledges on steep slopes and at the foot of cliffs, at the meso- and supra-mediterranean level under temperate oceanic-submediterranean bioclimate (Rivas-Martinez & Rivas-Saenz 2011), elevation 170 to 1400 m for the known localities (Fig. 10, App. 1–3).

Phenology:— Flowering in May and early June.