Olbia obtusa

Iamonico, Duilio, 2016, Nomenclatural notes and morphological observations on Malva subovata s. l. (Malvaceae), Phytotaxa 275 (1), pp. 23-34 : 27

Olbia canescens

Medikus (1787: 41–42) proposed the new genus Olbia including the species O. thuringiaca ( Linnaeus 1753: 691) Medikus (1787: 42) , O. triloba (L.) Medikus (1787: 42), O. hastata Medikus (1787: 42) [nom. nov. pro L. olbia Linnaeus (1753: 690) ], and O. obtusa Medikus. (1787: 42) sp. nov. Further Olbia taxa were later published ( Moench 1802). O. canescens Moench (1802: 200) was given through a short description (“ ...caule fruticoso, foliis cordatosubrotundis, quinquelobatis tomentoso-incani, crenatis, pedunculi solitari ”), which completely matches that of L. maritima . Moreover, Moench (1802: 200) cited Gouan’s illustration as “Gouan Illustr. p. 46 t. 25. f. 2.” [Gouan’s table has the number 21 in the original publication ( Gouan 1773), but both the page (“46”) and figure (“2”) numbers match, so I suppose a typographical error occurred]. All things stated, O. canescens can be considered a nomen novum pro Lavatera maritima . However, since L. maritima is legitimate, Olbia canescens is illegitimate and superfluous, as the taxon to which Moench’s name was applied definitely included the type of a name that ought to have been adopted (Arts. 52.1, and 52.2 of ICN).