Plantago subulata sensu Wulfen (1787: 204)

Iamonico, Duilio, Hassemer, Gustavo, Rønsted, Nina & Pietro, Romeo Di, 2017, The intricate nomenclatural questions around Plantago holosteum (Plantaginaceae), Phytotaxa 306 (1), pp. 75-84 : 77-78

Plantago subulata sensu Wulfen (1787: 204)

Wulfen (1787: 204) proposed the name Plantago subulata providing the following short description: “ Plantago foliis semicylindraceo-triquetris, serrulato-ciliatis; basi lanatis; scapo terete, villoso; spica cylindracea, ante florescentiam cernua”. In addition he listed six synonyms:

1) “ Plantago foliis subulatis, triquetris, striatis, scabris, scapo terete. Linnaeus sp. plant. Pag. 166. N. 12 ”, which is the diagnosis of Plantago subulata by Linnaeus;

2) “Serpentina Goritiensibus dista. Matthioli Comment. in Dioscor. Pag. 256. sub Coronopo. Lobel. observ. pag. 240. figura utraque, tum Advers. pag. 187”, which refers to both the ” Serpentina ” by Matthioli [1559: 296 (”256” is probably an ortographic mistake), with an associated illustration available at https://books.google.it/books?id=OGK3WyHq8iQC&pg=PA296&lpg=PA296&dq#v=o nepage&q&f=false], and the ”Coronopus silvestris” by L’Obel [1591: 431 (”240” is not the page, but an undefined number placed under the name), with an associated illustration available at http://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/ing/Libro.php?Libro=4360& Pagina =447 (image on the left)]. L’Obel (l.c.) quoted Matthioli (1559);

3) “Coronopus serpentina; Massiliensis; omnium minima; & Rainaudeti. Joh. Bauh. III.pag. 510. 511”, which refers to the following four polynomials published by Bauhin & Cherler (1651: 510‒511): ”CORONOPVS SERPENTINA”, ”CORONOPVS MASSILIENSIS LOBELII Serpentina forte varietas” [these two names are associated in Bauhin & Cherler (1651) with illustrations at http://bibdigital. rjb.csic.es/ing/Libro.php?Libro=4182& Pagina =722], ”CORONOPVS SERPENTARIA omnium minima”, and ”CORONOPVS MARITIMVS Rainaudeti” [the letter two names are associated in Bauhin & Cherler (1651) with illustrations at http://bibdigital.rjb. csic.es/ing/Libro.php?Libro=4182& Pagina =723];

4) “ Plantago Holosteum. Scopoli. fl. carn. 2. T. I. pag. 108. N. 164”, which is the Scopoli’s species published in Flora Carniolica ( Scopoli 1772: 108);

5) “ Plantago foliis subulatis triquetris rigidis, scapo tereti. N. 8. Item Plantago foliis subulatis nudis, spica oblonga. N. 9. Gerard. Galloprov. pag. 334”, which refers to two names published by Gerard (1761: 334‒335) in his Flora Gallo-Provincialis.

6) “ Plantago maritima tenuifolia. Zanichelli. Tab. 60?”, which refers to Zanichelli [1785: 213, associated illustration no. 60 available at http://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/ing/Libro.php?Libro=5547& Pagina =258).

By the examination of the synonymy given by Wulfen (1787: 204), the following considerations can be made:

a) Wulfen’s description of his Plantago subulata differs from the Linnaean’s description of P. subulata by two characters of leaves: “foliis semicylindraceo” (by Wulfen) vs. “foliis subulatis” (by Linnaeus), and “foliis... serrulato-ciliatis” (by Wulfen) vs. “foliis... scabris” (by Linnaeus);

b) Wulfen’s description of his Plantago subulata includes the majority of the diagnosis of P. maritima L. ( Linnaeus 1753: 114, “ PLANTAGO foliis semicylindraceis... basi lanatis, scapo tereti”). This is probably the reason that led Wulfen to add the Zanichelli’s “ Plantago maritima tenuifolia”;

c) Wulfen’s “ Plantago subulata ” includes the concept of at least two species. The first one is P. subulata L. since among the Wulfen’s synonyms there are: i) the direct citation of the Linnaean diagnosis ( Linnaeus 1753: 115); ii) the aforementioned Gerard’s phrase (which is precisely the Linnaean diagnosis of P. subulata ), and iii) the polynomials “CORONOPVS MASSILIENSIS LOBELII” 3, and “CORONOPVS MARITIMVS Rainaudeti” 4. The second is P. holosteum Scop. which is a currently accepted species. The polynomial “CORONOPVS SERPENTARIA omnium minima” (listed by Bauhin & Cherler 1651: 511) was previously cited by Bauhin (1623: 190) as a synonym of the ”Holosteum strictissimo folio minus” which was published by L’Obel (1591) [the latter name cited also by Linnaeus (1753: 115) as synonym of P. subulata ]. The same polynomial was listed by Scopoli (1772) as a synonym of his P. holosteum . The polynomial “Coronopus silvestris” ( L’Obel 1591) and “Serpentina ” (Matthioli 1559) are synonyms of “Holosteum strictissimo folio majus” in Bauhin (1623: 190) but the latter name was not cited in any of the Linnaean works.

The identification of the plant pictures occurring in Bauhin & Cherler, Matthioli, and L’Obel has been made on the basis of the current concept in Plantago (see e.g., Charter & Cartier 1976, Pignatti 1982, Pedrol 2009). Only three, out of the six illustrations quoted by Wulfen (1787), can be ascribed to a Plantago name as follows: “CORONOPVS MASSILIENSIS LOBELII”, and “CORONOPVS MARITIMVS Rainaudeti” ( Bauhin & Cherler 1651: 510) to P. subulata , while “CORONOPVS SERPENTARIA omnium minima” ( Bauhin & Cherler 1651: 511) to P. holosteum (see discussion above under P. holosteum ). On the other hand “CORONOPVS SERPENTINA” ( Bauhin & Cherler 1651: 511) and the Matthioli’s and L’Obel’s images could not be ascribed with certainty to a single name. In fact both current concepts of P. serpentina and P. holosteum could be suitably associated to these illustrations but some important characters for the species identification (such as those concerning the inflorescence) are unclear.

Wulfen (1787: 205) reported a long sentence: “Specificum Serpentinae, ut Veteres, si eidem non dedi nomen, sed Plantaginis cum Linnaeo subulatae, id factum omnino, ne innovare viderer velle aliquid, & continuis hisce nominum permutationibus parum quidem tyronum consulere utilitati”. This appears to indicate that Wulfen himself (1787) attributed the name Plantago subulata to Linnaeus. For this reason we have interpreted the name as “ Plantago subulata sensu Wulfen ”.

On the basis of the morphological characters observable in Wulfen’s image, the current descriptions of the narrow leaved plantain species reported in some of the most important European floras (e.g., Charter & Cartier 1976, Pignatti 1982, Pedrol 1992) and the authors’ personal expert knowledge, Plantago subulata sensu Wulfen is to be referred to P. holosteum (relatively long leaves, absence of a dead leaf tuft at the base of the stem, and this latter bearing patent hairs).