Cicer anatolicum, Alefeld, 1861

Krivenko, Denis & Tatanov, Ivan, 2021, Lectotypification of three names in Cicer (Fabaceae), Phytotaxa 512 (2), pp. 117-124 : 117-119

Typification of Cicer anatolicum and its synonym C. glutinosum

Both species were described by the German physician and botanist Dr. Friedrich Georg Christoph Alefeld (1820–1872). Cicer anatolicum was based on plants from Turkey collected by the Swiss botanist and traveler Pierre Edmond Boissier (1810–1885) during his first expedition to the ‘Orient’ undertaken in 1842 ( Charpin 2011). The complete set of Boissier’s collections from his voyages to the ‘Orient’ in 1842 and 1845–1846 are kept in G-BOIS, duplicates can be found in the other combined Geneva herbaria (G-DC or G) and also at least 53 herbaria all over the world ( Al-Shehbaz & Barriera 2019). Cicer glutinosum was based on plants from Iran collected by the French zoologist and botanist, Guillaume Antoine Olivier (1756–1814) who travelled in the Ottoman Empire including modern Egypt and Persia ( Iran) in 1792–1798 jointly with the French physician, zoologist and diplomat, Jean Guillaume Bruguière (1750–1798) ( Bernard 1997). Stafleu & Cowan (1981) report that material from this Middle East expedition can be found in B, FI, G-DC, H, L and P.

In the protologues, Alefeld (1861) clearly indicated that he based C. anatolicum and C. glutinosum exclusively on the specimens housed in the General herbarium at Berlin (B). However, the types and regular specimens of Alefeld, like most of the B herbarium materials, were destroyed by the bombing of the Herbarium building on the night of 1 to 2 March 1943 during World War II ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976, Hiepko 1987). This is an unstable nomenclatural situation, in which case the destroyed types must now be replaced by lectotypes from original materials, whether as the correct name or as a synonym ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 7.2, Art. 9.11, Art. 9.12, Turland 2019).

Davis (1970) is the first author to indicate that he saw the type of С. anatolicum in G, at the same time he cited the abbreviated label “in dumosis Tmoli (Boz Da.), Boissier”, as it was indicated in the protologue. Such citation may correspond to the designation of the lectotype, provided that only one type specimen is available in the combined Geneva herbaria. However, we found that in these combined herbaria there are two duplicates of the original collection of С. anatolicum , one specimen each in G-BOIS and G. These specimens are syntypes of С. anatolicum ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 9.6). In this regard, Davis’s citation of the type of С. anatolicum in G must be considered as the first-step lectotypification of this name ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 9.17, Ex. 14). The same specimens are preserved in C, BM, LE and P. All these duplicates distributed by Boissier as C. songaricum are specimens of the same gathering, provided with the yellow printed labels “Herb. Boiss. Cicer songaricum Steph. in dumosis Tmoli, Jun. 1842 ”.

The monographer of the genus Cicer, van der Maesen (1972, 1987 ) also as Davis cited an abbreviated label, as it was cited in the protologue, and indicated that the “ holotype ” is kept in G. Later, van der Maesen (1979) did not indicate where the “typus” was deposited, and listed BM, C, G, K, P and WU herbaria which contain syntypes. In a later publication, van der Maesen et al. (2007) indicated that the “ holotype ” is kept in G. However, none of the specimens in the combined Geneva herbaria can be regarded as the holotype ( McNeill 2014, Turland et al. 2018: Art. 9.1).

Van der Maesen (1987) indicated that the holotype of C. glutinosum is kept in B and the isotype in P. However, as confirmed by R. Vogt (pers. comm.) original material of Alefeld’s names was lost in the fire at the Berlin Botanical Museum in World War II .