Abstract
The genus Corema D. Don (1826: 63) (Ericaceae Jussieu 1789: 159) comprises two species. Corema album (Linnaeus 1753: 1022) D. Don (1830: 460) (incl. C. febrifugum Boissier ex Willkomm & Lange 1877: 512) occurs on the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula (subsp. album) from Gibraltar to Finisterre (Willkomm & Lange 1877, Webb 1972, Cabezudo 1987, Villar 1993, Boratyński & Vera de la Puente 1994, López González 2001, Ruiz de la Torre 2006, Gil-López 2011), the Azores (subsp. azoricum Pinto da Silva 1966: 86), and the Mediterranean Basin (Spain, Alicante province, one population) (Solanas 1996, Solanas & Crespo 2001, Serra 2007, Aguilella et al. 2009). Corema conradii (Torrey 1837: 83) Torrey (1842: 1092) occurs on the eastern coast of North America from Newfoundland to New Jersey (Redfield 1884, McEwen 1894, Elisens 2009), and can be distinguished from C. album by its very small fruits which are devoid of fleshiness and covered with elaiosomes (oily appendages associated with ant dispersal) (Redfield 1884, McEwen 1894, Martine et al. 2005). Corema album subsp. azoricum exists on six of the nine islands of the Azores, and below 200 m (Franco 1984) this taxon has been recognized by some authors at the species level as C. azoricum [“azorica”] (Pinto da Silva 1966) Rivas Martínez, Lousã, Fernández Prieto, E. Días, J.C. Costa & C. Aguiar (in Rivas-Martínez, Fernández-González, Loidi, Lousã & Penas 2002: 700).