Delphinium viscosum Hooker f. & Thomson (1855: 52) subsp. viscosum

Agnihotri, Priyanka, Husain, Danish & Husain, Tariq, 2017, Lectotypification of three names in genus Delphinium (Ranunculaceae) from India, Phytotaxa 329 (2), pp. 187-189 : 187-188

Delphinium viscosum Hooker f. & Thomson (1855: 52) subsp. viscosum

Type (lectotype, designated here):— INDIA. Sikkim, Phutwong near Tunga 15,000 ft., Oct., J.D. Hooker s.n. (K barcode K000076975 [digital image!], available at http://specimens.kew.org/herbarium/K000076975).

Further original material traced:— INDIA. Sikkim, 15-16,000 ft., J.D. Hooker s.n. (BM barcode BM001122288 [digital image!], E barcode E00438689 [digital image!]) ; Sikkim, Kinchin-jhow , 16,000 ft., 12 September 1849, s.coll. (K barcode K000076974 [digital image!]) .

Notes:— Hooker and Thomson (1855: 52) cited ‘ Sikkim, 15-16,000 pedibus’. Later on, Munz (1967: 495) in his treatment of this species cited ‘ Sikkim, 15-16,000 ft., J.D. Hooker in Hooker f. & Thomson collection’ and listed two specimens kept in K: Kinchin-jhow, 16,000’, 12 Sept. 1849, Hooker s.n.; Phutwong near Tunga, Oct., 15,000’ Hooker s.n. . Agnihotri et al. (2015) also provided a detailed commentary on the typification, but in our opinion the name still requires typification as the name hitherto remains attached to four syntypes. Therefore, one specimen is selected here from amongst the original material to lectotypify the name (Arts. 7.7 and 9.2 of the ICN, McNeill et al. 2012).

Besides the three specimens at BM, E and K collected by Sir J.D. Hooker, there is one sheet at K without collector name bearing barcode K000076974 with details: ‘Kinchin-jhow, 16,000 ft., 12 September 1849 ’. The writing used for providing details undoubtedly belongs to Sir J. D. Hooker and we therefore consider it as part of the original material. Sir J. D. Hooker has mentioned Sikkim on two specimens whereas for the remaining two specimens, specific localities from Sikkim were mentioned: Kinchin-jhow and Phutwong near Tunga. We choose the sheet K000076975 as the lectotype.

Taxonomic notes: Delphinium viscosum is regarded as a taxonomic complex distributed in eastern Himalaya. The plant is non odorous with very variable flower colours. The typical form is characterized by small bracts ranging 1.8 ‒ 2.0 cm in length and bracteoles ranging 0.7 ‒ 0.8 cm in length inserted remotely from flower.