Thymus albanus Heinr.Braun

Bartolucci, Fabrizio & Walter, Johannes, 2015, Typification of names in the genus Thymus (Lamiaceae), Phytotaxa 221 (2), pp. 137-147 : 138

Thymus albanus Heinr.Braun in Wettstein (1892: 86) subsp. magellensis Ronniger in Markgraf (1926: 429)

Type (lectotype, designated here):— MACEDONIA. Mittel-Albanien, Ostgrenze, Mali Shebenikut , Serpentinschotter der Maja Shebenikut, 1800 m, 16 June 1924, Markgraf Fr. 720 (W-Ronniger1997-0000542!, right-hand specimen; image of the lectotype is available at http://herbarium.univie.ac.at/database/detail.php? ID =167092). Epitype (designated here) :— ITALY. Flora der Abruzzen. La Majella: Am M. Amaro , 2200–2780 m, 25–26 July 1924, J. Bornmüller 211 ( W 1997-0000541 !, lower-right specimen, isoepitype W-Ronniger 2008-0019199!; image of the epitype is available at http://herbarium.univie.ac.at/database/detail.php? ID =594672) .

Protologue citation:—“Mittel-Albanien: Golloborda, MaliShebenikut, im Serpentinschutt der Maja Shebenikut, 1800 m, blühend 16. Juni 1924 —n. 720”.

Nomenclatural notes:—In the protologue Ronniger refers to a specific collection in Albania (cited above), but also states that Th. albanus subsp. magellensis was known so far only from Abruzzo [“…die letztgenannte Unterart ist bisher nur aus den Abruzzen bekannt”]. We traced only one herbarium specimen on which are mounted two fragments of Thymus (W-Ronniger 1997-0000542), which fully agree with the protologue. The right-hand fragment is selected here as the lectotype. Unfortunately the lectotype is incomplete, and considering the taxonomic complexity of this genus, we decided to designate an epitype to fix the application of the name. Ronniger cites another plant material on the handwritten label of the lectotype collected by Bornmüller, Handel-Mazzetti and Hayek on the Majella mountain (Abruzzo, central Italy) in 1924, which, following his opinion, is identical with the lectotype material. We were not able to trace specimens collected by Bornmüller, Handel-Mazzetti and Hayek or other original material from Albania. However, we traced in W two duplicate specimens collected by Bornmüller at Mt. Majella ( W 1997-0000541 and W-Ronniger 2008-0019199). The specimen numbered as W 1997-0000541 is linked to the same additional number “207b” as can be seen on the note by Ronniger of the lectotype and hence, is selected here as the epitype. This additional number does of course not correspond with the original collecting number of the lectotype but seems to be just a reference number for Ronniger.

Taxonomic notes:—According to Jalas (1971), Th. albanus Heinr.Braun (lectotype, designated by Jalas 1971: WU 0044271!, isolectotype PRC barcode PRC 454115![digital photo]), and Th. zygiformis Heinr.Braun in Wettstein (1892: 87) (lectotype, designated by Jalas 1971: WU 0027806!, isolectotype W-Ronniger 1997-0000572!) are synonyms. Because both are legitimate names of equal priority in the same rank, Jalas (1971), established the priority of Th. zygiformis (Art. 11.5 of the ICN, McNeill et al. 2012). From our point of view, Th. albanus subsp. maJellensis is just a variety of Th. zygiformis with glabrous but densely glandular-punctate leaves. On this account, we propose for this taxon the following new combination: Thymus zygiformis var. magellensis (Ronniger) Bartolucci & J.Walter comb. nov. Bas.: Thymus albanus subsp. magellensis Ronniger in Markgraf (1926: 429) ≡ Thymus albanus subvar. magellensis (Ronniger) Ronniger in Hayek (1930: 379) ≡ Thymus albanus var. magellensis (Ronniger) Stojanov & Stefanoff (1933: 894) .