Hieracium aragonense Scheele (1863: 667)

Ferrer-Gallego, P. Pablo, Mateo, Gonzalo, Rosselló, Josep A. & Sáez, Llorenç, 2021, Nomenclatural types of Hieracium (Asteraceae) species described from the Balearic Islands (Spain) and several related taxa, Phytotaxa 478 (2), pp. 201-215 : 202-204

Hieracium aragonense Scheele (1863: 667) [‘ arragonense ’]

Type (lectotype, designated here):— [ SPAIN. Teruel], Monte Tolosa , s.d., Loscos s.n. ( COI barcode COI00041604 !) ( Fig. 1 ) .

The protologue of H. aragonense includes a complete description in Latin of this species, followed by the provenance “In monte Tolocha [Tolosa] Arragoniae: Loscos no. 341!” [sic], and a diagnosis to differentiate this species from “ H. caesium Fr. ! Rb. ic. t. 163. II” ( Scheele 1863: 667–668).

We have found a relevant original material in the Willkomm herbarium at COI. The specimen with barcode COI 00041604 bears four complete and well-developed plants, with leaves and capitula. The sheet contains also several labels, one of them is a label original of the Loscos’s herbarium, and was annotated by Willkomm as “Franc. Loscos, plantae Aragoniae australis. / Hieracium aragonense Scheele / Abundant in monte / Tolosa / Leg. 186 [this number represents the year of collection, although the last digit is missing] / Det. Willkomm”. The sheet bears also a label handwritten by Scheele, annotated as: “ Hieracium arragonense mihi! […]” followed by a complete description of the plant. A third label is a revision label of Arvet–Touvet, and is annotated as: “Sect. Cerinthoidea! Gr. Microcerinthea! / Hier. aragonense Scheele ! / forma! / Arv.– T.” ( Fig. 1 ).

We have been unable to locate any further original material in the relevant consulted herbaria (e.g., B, BM, G, JE, K, LY, MA, MPU, P, W, etc.). However, there are six specimens of H. aragonense preserved in the Loscos herbarium of the Sociedad Económica Aragonesa de Amigos del País (Zaragoza, Spain). Among this material, three specimens, numbered as 1644, 1646, and 1648, were collected in “Tolocha”, the same provenance that was indicated by Scheele in the protologue (see González Bueno & Muñoz Garmendia 2001: 232–233). The specimen numbered 1646 could be a probable duplicate of the material preserved at COI . However, it lacks the date of collection; but Scheele did not indicate a collection date for the gathering mentioned in the protologue. Thus, the specimen in the Loscos herbarium could be perhaps a duplicate of the specimen at COI.

In conclusion, as the specimen COI 00041604 is a complete and informative material, and matches to the traditional concept and current use of the name, we designate this specimen as the lectotype of H. aragonense . It shows diagnostic features as the glabrous leaves on the adaxial surface, with numerous simple eglandular hairs beneath and on the margin; basal leaves 40–60 × 20–30 mm, ovate, lanceolate or elliptical, dentate near the base, narrowed into a conspicuous petiole; cauline leaves 0–l(–2), small; capitula 1–3, peduncles with numerous stellate and sparse glandular hairs, involucre 8–10 × 6–9 mm; phyllaries with few stellate hairs, numerous glandular hairs and sometimes a few simple eglandular hairs (see Arvet-Touvet 1913, Zahn 1930, Sell & West 1976, Mateo & Egido 2017, Mateo et al. 2017).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Lectotype of Hieracium aragonense Scheele in COI (barcode COI00041604).—Image by courtesy of the University of Coimbra (Herbarium COI), reproduced with permission.