Delphinium glaciale Hooker f. & Thomson (1855: 53)

Agnihotri, Priyanka, Husain, Danish & Husain, Tariq, 2017, Lectotypification of three names in genus Delphinium (Ranunculaceae) from India, Phytotaxa 329 (2), pp. 187-189 : 187

Delphinium glaciale Hooker f. & Thomson (1855: 53)

Type (lectotype, designated here):— INDIA. Sikkim, Donkia Pass, 17-18000 ft., Sept. 1845, J.D. Hooker s.n. (K barcode K000076978 [digital image!], available at http://specimens.kew.org/herbarium/K000076978.

Further original material traced:— Sikkim (BM barcode BM000565806 [digital image!], CAL barcode 0000004029!; E barcode E00438695 [digital image!], GH barcode GH00038301 [digital image!], JE barcode JE00016417 [digital image!], MH barcode MH 00001736!; NY barcode NY 00353421 [digital image!], S no. S07-14842 [digital image!]).

Notes:—In the protologue, Hooker f. and Thomson (1855: 53) indicated “In Himalaya orient, interior!: Sikkim, alt. 16-18,000 ped.!” without specifying any herbarium. Later on, Munz (1967: 485), in his treatment of this name cited the K specimen as the holotype which is an error to be corrected to the lectotype (Art. 9.9 of ICN, McNeill et al., 2012; McNeil 2014: 1112). The original material traced is composed by nine specimens kept in BM, CAL, E, GH, JE, K, MH, NY and S. All the specimens bear essentially the same details except K specimen for which Sir J. D. Hooker had mentioned the exact locality “Donkia Pass”. Therefore, the K specimen is selected here as the lectotype as required by Arts. 7.8 and 8.1 of the ICN ( McNeill et al., 2012).

Taxonomic and ecological notes:—This species occurs at an altitude higher than 5000 m a.s.l. in the eastern Himalaya. The upper sepal is fairly large reaching a length of ca 30 mm and spur with a width of nearly 8 mm. The plant is characterized by its small habit, presence of musky smell, semiglobose flowers, ciliate stamens and 5 carpels. Morphologically, the species affinity lies with D. brunonianum Royle (1834: 56) and D. nordhagenii Wendelbo (1954: 227) .