Achillea ptarmica (Asteraceae), a scarce and less known species of the Slovak flora

The distribution of Achillea ptarmica in Slovakia was studied using herbarium specimens deposited in 22 public herbaria. The herbarium studies were supplemented with targeted field search. The species has been recorded in 28 phytogeographical districts and subdistricts but most of the records are concentrated in the Zahorska nižina lowland in western Slovakia, in the Slovenske stredohorie Mts. in central Slovakia and in the Slovenske rudohorie Mts. in eastern Slovakia. While most of the occurrences once recorded in the Pannonian part of the country vanished, many new populations were recently found in the Carpathians. Our results show that the evaluation of the species as near threatened (NT) in the recent version of the Slovak Red List is correct.