Proposal (35) to conserve the name Festucion valesiacae

For ninety years, the alliance name Festucion valesiacae has been widely and almost exclusively used to designate the al­liance of steppic, xeric grasslands on deep soils from Central Europe to western Ukraine. However, there is an earlier, hardly used heterotypic synonym, the Festucion sulcatae, that would be the correct name according to the rules [recte: Festucion rupicolae nom. corr.]. In order to preserve a well-established name, we propose to conserve the name Festucion valesiacae against the name Festucion sulcatae. In addition, we typify the name Festucion rupicolae Soó 1930 nom. corr. with the association Festuco rupicolae-Stipetum pennatae Soó 1930 nom. corr., for which we also select a neotype. This proposal is supported by the fact that the alliance Festucion valesiacae is the conserved type of the order Festucetalia valesiacae. (35) Festucion valesiacae Klika 1931 Typus: Ranunculo illyrici-Festucetum valesiacae Klika 1931 (lectotypus designated by Toman 1975: 131) (=) Festucion rupicolae Soó 1930 nom. corr. (≡ Festucion sulcatae Soó 1930 nom. inept.) Typus: Festuco rupicolae-Stipetum pennatae Soó 1930 nom. corr. (lectotypus hoc loco) Taxonomic reference: Euro+Med (2023) unless otherwise indicated. Syntaxonomic reference: Mucina et al. (2016). Abbreviations: EVC = EuroVegChecklist (Mucina et al. 2016); ICPN = 4th edition of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (Theurillat et al. 2021).