Zur Frage der Indigenität von Stachys Alopecuros (Linnaeus [1753], sub Betonica) Bentham [1834] im Sefinental (Berner Oberland)

Abstract

The only locality of Stachys Alopecuros north of the Alps in Switzerland discovered in the Bernese Oberland (Lauterbrunnen Valley) only in 1868 offers some difficulties as to a logical explanation for its isolated geographical position. The closest localities south of the Alps are situated at a distance of around 107.5 km as the crow flies to the south-east in the Tessin canton (Colla Valley), locality discovered in 1839. Based on some local peculiarities of this isolated locality north of the Alps, an anthropochorous origin is suggested as to the most logical explanation (accidental introduction of seeds by shepherds from the calcarean Lower-Alps of the Italian province of Bergamo in relatively recent times).