Astragalus vogelii subsp. fatimensis Maire, Mém. Soc. Hist. Nat. Afr.

Punjani, Bhasker, Patel, Suresh, Desai, Prashant, Chaudhary, Lal Babu & Sanjappa, Munivenkatappa, 2021, Taxonomic notes on Astragalus vogelii subsp. atimensis (Galegeae, Fabaceae), Phytotaxa 521 (3), pp. 212-218 : 216

Astragalus vogelii subsp. fatimensis Maire, Mém. Soc. Hist. Nat. Afr. Nord 3: 126. 1933; Kumar & Sane, Legum.

South Asia: Checkl. 244. 2003; L. B. Chaudhary , Rev. gen. Astragalus L. (Legum.-Papilio.) India 75. 2018. Type :

( Saudi Arabia), Prope Pag. Uasert in Valle Wadi Fatme Pr. Mecca, 3 Feb. 1836, W. Schimper 843 ( P!; K-000895560!,

000895564! in Herb. J.Ball).

= A. arabicus Ehrenb. ex Bunge, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint Pétersbourg 11 (16): 9. 1868, in clave & 15 (1): 6. 1869, descriptio, nom. illegit., non Kotschy, 1866. Type: Arabia, El Gidon, Jan. 1825, Ehrenherg s. n. (lecto: P!; iso: K!).

= A. prolixus auct . non Sieb. ex Bunge, 1868; Baker in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 2: 121. 1876; Cooke, Fl. Bombay 1: 329. 1902; Shah, Fl. Gujarat State 1: 183. 1978.

= A. fatmensis Chiov., Ann. Ist. Bot. Roma 8 (Pirotta, Fl. Eritrea, i. Fasc. 1): 95. 1903. Type: based on type of A. arabicus Ehrenb. ex Bunge.

= A. fatimensis Hochst. ex Blatt., Rec. Bot. Surv. India 8 (1): 156. 1921; Ali, Biologia 7: 79. 1961 & in Nasir & Ali, Fl. W. Pakistan 100: 209. 1977 (as A. fatmensis ); Sanjappa , Legum. India 87. 1992. Type : India, Punjab , Ludhiana (‘Lodiana’), Edgeworth s.n. (lecto: K-001090897!), lectotype designated by Ali (1961).

= Podlechiella vogelii subsp. fatimensis (Chiov.) Maassoumi & Kazempour Osaloo, Plant Syst. Evol. 242: 22. 2003; L.B.Chaudhary & Srivastava, Taiwania 52 (1): 32. 2007; Podlech & Zarre, Tax. Rev. gen. Astragalus L. (Legum.) Old World 1: 169. 2013 (as Podlechiella vogelii subsp. fatimensis (Maire) Maassoumi & Kazempour Osaloo ).

This taxon ( A. vogelii subsp. fatimensis ) was first described as A. arabicus Ehrenb. ex Bunge (1868: 9) , which is a later homonym of A. arabicus Kotschy (1866: 264) . Ali (1961) has discussed this issue in his work and also mentioned that A. prolixus Sieb. ex Bunge is different from A. arabicus Ehrenb. ex Bunge. It has been observed that there are two epithets ‘ fatimensis’ and ‘ fatmensis’ that available for A. arabicus Ehrenb. ex Bunge. These epithets have been variously and inconsistently used in different publications and online databases ( Table 1) for the same taxon based on the same type. Chiovenda (1903) was the first to provide a new name A. fatmensis Chiov. (1903: 95) , while Blatter (1921) published A. fatimensis Hochst. ex Blatt. (1921: 156) for Astragalus arabicus Ehrenb. ex Bunge at species rank. However, Maire in 1933 treated this taxon as a subspecies of A. vogelii based on a specimen ‘Fatma valley, W. Schimper 843’ (that was named as A. fatmensis by Hochst.) but used the epithet ‘ fatimensis’ without citing Chiovenda (1903) and Blatter (1921). Probably, the epithet fatimensis was adopted from the geographical area Wadi Fatima (on Type specimen it is ‘Fatme’), Province Macca of Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, this treatment of Maire (1933) was accepted by Podlech (1984), Podlech & Zarre (2013) and Chaudhary (2018) and A. fatmensis of Chiovenda (1903) and A. fatimensis of Blatter (1921) were treated as synonyms. On the other hand, Kazempor Osaloo et al. (2003) and Chaudhary & Srivastava (2007) used A. fatmensis Chiov. as basionym while transferring A. vogelii to a new genus Podlechiella [ P. vogelii (Webb) Maassoumi & Kazempour Osaloo subsp. vogelii (2003: 22) and P. vogelii subsp. fatimensis (Chiov.) Maassoumi & Kazempour Osaloo (2003: 22) ], however, they applied fatimensis epithet in place of fatmensis as used by Chiovenda (1903).

Maire (1933) made his new combination ( Astragalus vogelii subsp. fatimensis Maire ) based on an unpublished name on Schimper’s specimen No 843. In our opinion Maire’s fatimensis should be considered as new subspecies despite the fact that he refers to Hochst.’s manuscript/unpublished name and treats it as a new combination. This name is separate from A. fatmensis Chiov. (1903) and A. fatimensis Hochst. ex Blatt. (1921) that are all based on the same type (Arabia, El Gidon, Jan. 1825, Ehrenberg s.n. (P; iso: K), because as per ICN Article 11.2 ( Turland et al., 2018), a name has no priority outside the rank at which it is published. Therefore, the correct name should be Astragalus vogelii subsp. fatimensis Maire, Mém. Soc. Hist. Nat. Afr. Nord 3: 126. 1933.