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Shorter Notes Salvinia molesta in Mexico.—The genus Salvinia Seg. comprises ten species commonly on stranded of mostly tropical ferns that are floating aquatics or less Among known receding shorelines. these, perhaps the best is S. molesta D.S. which Mitchell (Kariba weed, giant salvinia, giant water spangles), is notorious New and Old Worlds. an extremely aggressive invasive exotic in both the as This species extremely growing and has the capacity to cover the surface fast is of even large bodies of standing and slow-moving water, forming so dense a and continuous mat oxygen exchange inhibited passage that is light is Because precluded, to the detriment of other aquatic organisms. is a sterile it and 330-338. molesta pentaploid (n=45; Loyal Grewal, Cytologia 31: 1966], S. reproduces only vegetatively by fragmentation and regrowth; thus humans, and main The taxon waterfowl, surface drainage are the dispersal agents. first when came the world's attention in the 1930s, plants inadvertently released to Lanka grew major Subsequently, into a lake in Sri quickly into a infestation. it and caused similar problems in portions of Australia, India, southeastern Asia, Forum was 1972 Africa (Moran, Fiddlehead 19[4+5]: 26-28. 1992). not until It unnamed and that the taxon was correctly determined to represent an species new was described as to science, based on plants infesting Lake Kariba, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe (Mitchell, Brit. Fern Gaz. 10: 251- 252. 1972). In the United States, S. molesta and its relatives are considered Animal and noxious weeds under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Plant (USDA-APHIS) and by law from Health Inspection Service thus are prohibited import shipment. international or interstate Salvinia molesta a member of the auriculata Aubl. complex, which S. is South America and Trinidad (Forno, Aquatic consists of four taxa, all native to Bot. 17: 71-83. 1983). All of these taxa [but in particular S. molesta) are weeds considered potentially severe aquatic outside of their native ranges. Forno and Harley (Aquatic Bot. 6: 185-187. 1979) were the first to discover native populations of molesta growing at relatively low elevations in S. temperate southeastern Curiously, although the species has proliferated Brazil. in the Old World tropics, apparently has not spread significantly thus far in it the neotropics (Moran, Mesoamer. 396-397. 1995). Fl. 1: The introduction of S. molesta into temperate North America is very recent. Nauman North America 336-337. 1993) saw no wild-collected (Flora of 2: material, but mentioned that was a candidate for future escape based on its it cultivation in Florida. The species was first reported in the wild from a small pond in South Carolina (Johnson, Aquatics 22, 1985), soon thereafter 17[4l: 927- from a reservoir in eastern Texas and adjacent Louisiana (Jacono, Sida 18: 928. 1999), and subsequently from several other southeastern states (Jacono et same were al, Castanea 66: 214-226. 2001). At about the time, infestations first and subsequently noted in agricultural canals in southeastern California, in was on the Colorado River. Salvinia molesta first reported as present the SHORTER NOTES Arizona side of the Colorado River by Tellman (Plant Press [Tucson] 23 [3]: 4, and 14. 1999) has been documented from both La Paz and Yuma Counties (Yatskievych and Windham, Canotia 46e49. was 4: 2008). In California, it first reported by Jacono and Pitman (Aquatic Nuisance Species Digest 13-16. 4: 2001). Outside the Colorado River drainage and adjacent agricultural canals in and Imperial Riverside Counties, Consortium the of California Herbaria website now (http://ucieps.berkeley.edu/consortium) records sporadic occur- rences west San Diego County and to northward San Luis Obispo and to Mendocino Counties (we have not verified these specimens). In the comprehensive recent, account Mexican of pteridophytes and (Mickel Mem. New Smith, York Bot. Card. 88: 1B1054. only two 2004), species of Salvinia were treated auriculata and minima (S. S. Baker); molesta was not S. We mentioned. made recently were aware of the existence of an apparent 2002 collection from the Villahermosa area in Tabasco (C. Jacono, U.S. Geological Survey, comm.), which may pers. be the documented earliest infestation of the species in the country. Given presence Lower in the Colorado its River drainage Arizona and of California, it also is not surprising that S. molesta should become eventually established in adjacent portions of Mexico. Anecdotal reports place the time of its first discovery in northwestern Mexico An during document 2003. online issued by the Lower Colorado River Giant Salvinia Taskforce (http://www.lcrsalvinia.org/accomplishments/Mexico- PRES%20SM%20BLYTHE%2029-JUN-05.pdf) provided photographic evi- dence of the presence of the species in Baja California and maps presence its nearly throughout the Mexicali Water we District. Until recently, had not seen voucher specimen a in support of these reports, but our colleague, Richard Felger, kindly collected one our MEXICO, at request: Baja Mpio. California, km Mexicali, ca. 0.3 S of Presa Morelos, wetland with stagnant water pools and sandy-silty river soils, floating aquatic, forming 100% cover on some small, common stagnant pools and edge at of large pools, 32 42'16.0"N, 114 43'44.4"W Long., 108 elev. ca. ft, 16 Mar. 2006, R. S. Felger et 06-5 al. (BCMEX, MO, SD, UC). Despite all of the attention given to the presence of S. molesta in Baja California, the species apparently has not been reported from officially the state of Sonora. However, a recently located voucher specimen was collected by eminent Mexican the aquatic plant researcher, Alejandro Novelo R.: MEXICO, Sonora, Mpio. San Luis Colorado, Canal de Ri'o riego El Barrote, km SO de San 16 Luis Ri'o Colorado, vegetacion acuatica, herbacea, hidrofita libremente flotadora de m, 0.10 asociada Myriophyllum a Potamogeton y 7 Oct. 2004, A. Novelo 4566 (MEXU). R. Water Mexico that enters in the Colorado River (much pumped of from it deep wells Yuma, in the desert south of Arizona) impounded behind is the Presa Morelos, forming a reservoir that provides water for irrigation of crop and human fields other uses through complex a series of ditches and canals. The stretch of the river from below the dam mouth to the Gulf its at of California has additional water diversions. Salvinia can be spread by water flow through human the system, as well as by and activities waterfowl that —— AMERICAN FERN VOLUME NUMBER JOURNAL: 99 (2009) 1 mud and and utilize the water transport pieces of plant in attached to their feet feathers. seems likely that in coming years the species will continue to It common become and increasingly in both northeastern Baja California The Lower northwestern Sonora. Colorado River Giant Salvinia Taskforce has completed experimental releases of the biocontrol agent for the weed, a weevil native southern Brazil called Cryptobagous salviniae Calder & Sands to (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), which has been used successfully in some Old World (Thomas and Room, Nature 320:581- tropical countries of the Some have 584. 1986; http://www.lcrsalvinia.org/weevil.htm). stands also been sprayed seasonally with herbicides, but thus far these efforts have not Lower succeeded in stopping the spread of molesta in the Colorado River. S. Autonoma Arturo Mora-Olivo, de Ecologia Aplicada, Universidad de Institute Tamaulipas, 13 Blvd. Adolfo Lopez Mateos No. 928, 87040 Cd. Victoria, Tam., Box and Mexico, George Yatskievych, Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. 299, St. MO 63166 Louis, U.S.A. Type Specimens of Dracoglossum sinuatum Uncovered in the Rio de — Janeiro Herbarium. During a recent survey of the A. L. A. Fee collections some specimens in the Jardim Botanico herbarium, Rio de Janeiro (RB), belonging newly published genus Dracoglossum Christenhusz the fern to (Thaiszia Bot. 17:1-10. 2007) were uncovered. These specimens are original J. Bathmium macrocarpon and sinuatum material cited in the descriptions of B. by Fee (Mem. Foug. Gen. but previously were not Filic.:288. 1852), 5. same recognized These specimens both belong the species: as types. to Dracoglossum sinuatum Christenhusz. (Fee) Bathmium macrocarpon Fee an name, by illegitimate as stated is Christenhusz but Morton (Amer. Fern 56:123. 1966) erroneously (2007), J. name basionym and took the as a legitimate thus unintentionally established a new Maxon name: Tectaria plantaginea macrocarpa C.V.Morton, var. (Jacq.) with Fee's specimen (French Guiana, Cayenne, Poiteau anno 1825) as the s.n., Morton assumed specimen was without consuhing type. that this in Paris, P, but the isotypes found there are originally from the herbarium of Caen (CN), RB and had nothing to do with Fee. The specimen in from Fee's herbarium is him and annotated by and therefore the holotype. is The specimen oi Bathmium sinuatum was cited by Fee (1852) as "Habitat in Guyana, Leprieur in Herb. Moug.". The Mougeot herbarium was deposited s.n. in the herbarium of Montpellier (MPU) but this specimen not present here. is was Since the specimen considered Christenhusz (2007) designated a lost, RB specimen from Fee neotype. Nevertheless the in original material the is collection and thus the holotype, superseding the designated neotype. it is Maarten M. Christenhusz, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 J. Turun Finland. yliopisto,