Arthropodium candidum Raoul

Wang, Jian & Horsfall, Peter F., 2024, Lectotypification of the name Arthropodium candidum Raoul (Asparagaceae), Adansonia (3) 46 (6), pp. 41-44 : 42

Arthropodium candidum Raoul

Annales des Sciences naturelles, Botanique, sér. 3, t. 2: 117 (1844).

Arthropodium reflexum Colenso, Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 18: 275 ( Colenso 1885 publ. 1886).

Arthropodium ramulosum Colenso, Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 25: 337 ( Colenso 1892 publ. 1893).

Arthropodium bulbosum G.Simpson, Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 79: 419 ( Simpson 1952).

TYPE SPECIMEN. — New Zealand • Presqu’île de Banks [Akaroa]; 1843; Raoul, Étienne Fiacre Louis s.n.; lecto- , P [ P00852518 ], here designated (image!, Fig. 1 ); isolecto- , P [ P00852517 , P00852519 ] (images!) , GH [ GH00112132 ] (image!) , L [ L 0041370 ] (image!) , K [ K000794751 , K000794752 ] (the plant with roots on the right hand of the sheet, image!) .

TYPIFICATION REMARKS

Édouard Fiacre Louis Raoul (1815-1852) was a French surgeon and botanist who made plant collections at the Bay of Islands and Akaroa in New Zealand from July 1840 to November 1841 ( Simpson 1976). Upon his return to France towards the end of 1843, Raoul deposited the top set of his collections at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris ( Raoul 1844), where he continued to work on them and from where duplicates were distributed to major international herbaria such as B, BM, BR, C, FI, G, K, L, MEL, US ( Global Plants 2023).

When Arthropodium candidum Raoul was published in 1844, it was described as: “Slender with small ovate sessile bulbs, with linear narrow glabrous leaves, with a simple loose-flowered raceme, with lower pedicels paired or three together (i.e. ternate) (and) with uppermost (pedicels) solitary, with perianth and filaments of stamens glossy-white, with anthers deep-yellow, with capsule dull or black”.

We have found three sheets at P that correspond to the gathering cited by Raoul in the protologue for A. candidum and traced three additional duplicates at GH, K and L. The three syntypes at P [ P 00852517, P 00852518, P 00852519] match the description of A. candidum by having all characters, i.e., linear narrow glabrous leaves, a simple loose-flowered raceme, and some inflorescences with more than two flowers per node, but they are incorrectly recorded on the Global Plants database as having been collected by Édouard François Armand Raoul (1845- 1898), the nephew of the actual collector who visited New Zealand between 1886 and 1887 ( Simpson 1976). Out of these three sheets P 00852517 has immature flowers in the inflorescences, thus it is not an ideal candidate for lectotype. Both P 00852518 and P 00852519, on the other hand, have well-developed root systems, entire leaves and inflorescences with mature flowers and fruits. However, P 00852518 is the only gathering that has the word ‘ipse’ (roughly meaning “-self” in Latin), associated with Raoul’s name on the label, therefore it is chosen here as the lectotype of A. candidum . Noticeably, the duplicate at K ( K 000794751 – right hand side fragment only, near the colour chart on the digital image) was sent to Joseph Hooker from Paris according to the label. The specimens to the left of that gathering, roughly in the middle of the sheet, also have number 229 associated with the locality ‘Akawa [Akaroa?]’on the label and the name ‘Raoul’ written underneath but it is uncertain whether they are part of the same gathering as that sent to Hooker from Paris. All three syntypes at P, as well as the duplicates at GH and L, also have pre-printed labels with the date ‘1843’ at the bottom (i.e. the year Raoul returned to France from New Zealand) which is universally misinterpreted as the collection date in the Global Plants database.

Figures

FIG. 1. — Lectotype of Arthropodium candidum Raoul at P (P00852518); the sheet with five clumps is designated as the lectotype with a signature “Raoul ipse” in Latin. Image from P with acknowledgement.