Plantago wulfenii Sprengel (1806: 54)

Iamonico, Duilio, Hassemer, Gustavo, Rønsted, Nina & Pietro, Romeo Di, 2017, The intricate nomenclatural questions around Plantago holosteum (Plantaginaceae), Phytotaxa 306 (1), pp. 75-84 : 78-79

Plantago wulfenii Sprengel (1806: 54) and Plantago wulfenii Bernhard ex Willdenow (1809: 161)

The name Plantago wulfenii was published in two different times by two different authors. The earlier and legitimate name was proposed by Sprengel (1806: 54) for “ P. subulata sensu Wulfen non L.”. Willdenow (1809: 161) proposed a “ Plantago Wulfeni. Bernhardi ” which is therefore a later homonym of the Sprengel’s name and, as a consequence, to be considered illegitimate (Art. 53.2 of ICN). Although the name “ Plantago wulfenii Sturm ” appears in both IPNI (2016) and The Plant List (2013), it was never published as such, since Sturm (1808: 4) Sprengel is clearly indicated as author in his treatment. The name P. wulfenii Spreng. is here typified using the illustration provided by Wulfen (1787: Tab. 10).

On the other hand, P. wulfenii Bernh. ex Willd. is probably to be addressed to a different type. In fact this name has always been referred to P. maritima s.l. [for example some recent checklists consider P. wulfenii by Willdenow as a synonyms of P. serpentina L. (see e.g., Kerguélen, 1999; Tela Botanica, 2000 sub P. maritima subsp. serpentina (All.) Arcang. )]. The protologue of Willdenow’s Plantago wulfenii consists of: i) a short diagnosis (“P. [ Plantago ] foliis linearibus utrinque attenuatis planis trinerviis, scapo tereti”), ii) the provenance (“ Habitat in Carinthia”), iii) a

3 It is a synonym of ”Holosteum Massiliense ” by Bauhin (1623: 190), the latter name being cited by Linnaeus (1753: 115) as synonym of P. subulata .

4 It is one of the synonyms listed by Gerard (1761: 334) for the Linnaean’s diagnosis reported in Flora Gallo-Provincialis.

comparison with P. recurvata Linnaeus (1771: 198) (a name proposed to be rejected by Di Pietro & Iamonico, 2014a), and iv) the citation “ Plantago Wulfeni Bernhardi ” (Willdenow 1809: 161). An asterisk (“*”) was placed by Willdenow (l.c.) before the name P. wulfenii , indicating a species not listed by Linnaeus (l.c.). In the title of his work and the Prefatio (“Ex plantis spontaneis, sullommodo re vera in hortum introductas recensui”), Willdenow (l.c.) states his descriptions to be based on plants cultivated in the Botanical Garden of Berlin. There is a specimen deposited at B- W (Willdenow’s collection, B-W-02972010) containing one plant and the following two original annotations: “ Hort. bot. Berol. W. ” [Horti Botanici Berolinensis Willdenow] (on the bottom-right-corner of the sheet), “ Pl. [ Plantago ] Wulfenii . W. [Willdenow]” (on the top-right-corner of the sheet) which we consider part of the original material for P. wulfenii and thus eligible as lectotype, since no other original specimens were traced. On the basis of the current species concept in Plantago (see e.g., Charter & Cartier 1976, Pignatti 1982) the observation of some morphological characters present in the lectotype (long and flattish leaves with few teeth at the base of the blade and very long spikes) suggests to ascribe it to P. maritima .