Prospero

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Monocots
Ordo: Asparagales

Familia: Asparagaceae
Subfamilia: Scilloideae
Tribus: Hyacintheae
Subtribus: Hyacinthinae
Genus: Prospero
Species: P. autumnale – P. battagliae – P. corsicum – P. cudidaghense – P. depressum – P. elisae – P. fallax – P. hanburyi – P. hierae – P. hierapytnense – P. idaeum – P. minimum – P. obtusifolium – P. paratethycum – P. rhadamanthi – P. seisumsianum – P. talosii
Name

Prospero Salisb., Gen. Pl.: 28 (1866).

Lectotypus (designated by Speta, Phyton (Horn) 38(1): 115. 1998): Prospero autumnale (L.) Speta

This genus indeed may turn out to be a synonym for Scilla (Valdés, 2004), but the details here indicate that there is an alternative view (Govaerts (et al.), 2018 and others).
Distribution
Native distribution areas:

Europe
Northern Europe
Great Britain.
Middle Europe
Hungary.
Southwestern Europe
Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain.
Southeastern Europe
Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia.
Eastern Europe
Krym, Ukraine.
Africa
Northern Africa
Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia.
Asia-Temperate
Caucasus
North Caucasus, Transcaucasus.
Western Asia
Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Iran (doubtful), Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey.

References: Brummitt, R.K. 2001. TDWG – World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, 2nd Edition
References
Primary references

Salisbury, R.A.† 1866. The Genera of Plants 28.

Additional references

Jang, T.-S., Emadzade, K., Parker, J., Temsch, E.M., Leitch, A.R., Speta, F. & Weiss-Schneeweiss, H. 2013. Chromosomal diversification and karyotype evolution of diploids in the cytologically diverse genus Prospero (Hyacinthaceae). BMC Evolutionary Biology 13(136): 1–17. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-13-136 Open access. Reference page.
Speta, F. 1998. Systematische Analyse der Gattung Scilla L. s.l. (Hyacinthaceae). Phyton (Horn) 38(1): 1–141. PDF Reference page. (Prospero accepted)
Valdés, B. 2004. Some Validations in Liliaceae. Willdenowia 34(1): 63–64. DOI: 10.3372/wi.34.34104 Open access Reference page. (Prospero merged with Scilla, but with little or no wider acceptance)

Links

Govaerts, R. et al. 2018. Prospero in World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2018 May 31. Reference page. (Prospero accepted)
International Plant Names Index. 2014. Prospero. Published online. Accessed: Mar. 3 2014.
Tropicos.org 2014. Prospero. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2014 Mar. 3. (Prospero accepted)
Hassler, M. 2018. Prospero. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. 2018. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2018 May 29. Reference page. (Prospero accepted)
The Plant List 2013. Prospero in The Plant List Version 1.1. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2018 May 29. (Prospero accepted)

Prospero is a genus of bulbous flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae (also treated as the family Hyacinthaceae).[2] It is distributed in Europe, around the Mediterranean, and through the Middle East to the Caucasus.[1]

Description

Species of Prospero grow from bulbs, the leaves and flowers appearing in the autumn and dying down in spring. The leaves are relatively narrow. Each bulb produces one to four flowering stems (scapes) bearing dense racemes of pink to violet flowers. The 4–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in) long tepals are not joined together. The stamens have filaments coloured like the tepals and short purple anthers. The dark brown seeds are more-or-less oblong.[3]
Systematics

The genus Prospero was created by Richard Salisbury in 1866. However, some species he placed in the genus, such as P. hyacinthoideum and P. lingulatum, are currently placed in other genera.[4] Franz Speta and co-workers from the 1970s onwards split up the broadly defined genus Scilla, placing many species into separate genera.[5] The modern understanding of Prospero dates from 1982, with Speta's re-assignment of Scilla autumnalis (among other species) to Prospero.[4]

The genus is placed in the tribe Hyacintheae (or the subfamily Hyacinthoideae by those who use the family Hyacinthaceae).[6]
Species

As of April 2013, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognized the following species:[4]

Prospero autumnale (L.) Speta
Prospero battagliae Speta
Prospero corsicum (Boullu) J.-M.Tison
Prospero depressum Speta
Prospero elisae Speta
Prospero fallax (Steinh.) Speta
Prospero hanburyi (Baker) Speta
Prospero hierae C.Brullo
Prospero hierapytnense Speta
Prospero idaeum Speta
Prospero minimum Speta
Prospero obtusifolium (Poir.) Speta
Prospero paratethycum Speta
Prospero rhadamanthi Speta
Prospero talosii (Tzanoud. & Kypr.) Speta

References

"Prospero", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 2013-04-08
Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards), "Asparagales: Scilloideae", Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, retrieved 2014-02-25
"Prospero Salisb.", eMonocot, archived from the original on 2013-07-06, retrieved 2013-04-08
"Search for Prospero", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 2013-04-08
Trávníček, Bohumil; Duchoslav, Martin; Šarhanová, Petra & Šafářová, Lenka (2009), "Squills (Scilla s.lat., Hyacinthaceae) in the flora of the Czech Republic, with taxonomical notes on Central-European squill populations" (PDF), Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae biologicae (Brno), 94: 157–205, retrieved 2013-04-09
Pfosser, Martin; Speta, Franz (1999), "Phylogenetics of Hyacinthaceae based on plastid DNA sequences" (PDF), Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 86 (4): 852–875, doi:10.2307/2666172, JSTOR 2666172