Plantago australis subsp. australis de Lamarck (1791: 339)

Hassemer, Gustavo, Trevisan, Rafael, Meudt, Heidi M. & Rønsted, Nina, 2015, Taxonomic novelties in Plantago section Virginica (Plantaginaceae) and an updated identification key, Phytotaxa 221 (3), pp. 226-246 : 234

Plantago australis subsp. australis de Lamarck (1791: 339)

= P. accrescens Pilger (1912: 259) ; = P. candollei Rapin (1827: 453) ; = P. denudata Pilger (1913: 261–262) ; = P. durvillei Delile ex Fisch. & C.A.Mey. in von Fischer et al. (1837: 45); = P. gigantea Decaisne (1852: 724) ; = P. kurtzii Pilger (1912: 260–261) ; = P. macropus Pilger (1913: 254) ; = P. macrostachya Decaisne (1852: 724) ≡ P. australis subsp. macrostachya ( Decaisne 1852: 724) Rahn (1964: 50) ; = P. refracta Pilger (1912: 261–262) ; = P. stuckertii Pilger (1912: 262–263) ; = P. stuckertii subsp. catamarcensis Pilger (1912: 263) . Type:— ARGENTINA. “ Buenos Ayres ”, Commerson s.n. (holotype P, photograph!, isotype C!).

See description in Rahn (1974).

Illustration: —Figure 29 in Rahn (1974).

Phenology: —Mainly September–February.

Habitat and distribution: — Uruguay, Argentina (except southern Patagonia), southern Bolivia and southern Brazil. It occurs in open (unforested) areas, on rather moist soils, generally not far from rivers, canals or lakes, from sea-level to 3450 m asl ( Rahn 1974). Previously known in Brazil only from Rio Grande do Sul state ( Rahn 1974, 1995), this study expands the distribution of this subspecies northwards to Santa Catarina state, as we found collections of this subspecies which originated from five municipalities there: Alfredo Wagner, Bom Jardim da Serra, Grão Pará, Lauro Müller and Urubici.

Conservation status: —Least Concern (LC). This subspecies has a rather large distribution and is very frequent, especially in Argentina.

Discussion: —We noticed that the authors of two synonyms of this subspecies are commonly subject to some confusion in the literature and also online databases. Plantago candollei Rapin (Daniel Rapin) is commonly erroneously presented as P. candollei Raf. (Constantine Samuel Rafinesque) , and P. durvillei Delile ex Fisch. & C.A.Mey. (Carl Anton von Meyer) is often erroneously presented as P. durvillei Delile ex Fisch. & G.Mey. (Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer) or as P. durvillei Delile ex Steud. (Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel) .