Opuntia tuna (L.) Miller (1768, 1919

Guiggi, Alessandro & Mariotti, Mauro, 2022, Taxonomic and nomenclatural novelties in some Cactaceae of Greater Antilles, Phytotaxa 573 (2), pp. 215-230 : 222-224

4. Opuntia tuna (L.) Miller (1768 : OPUNTIA n° 3)

≡ Cactus tuna Linnaeus (1753: 468) .

Lectotype (designated by Crook & Mottram (2004: 61):―[Icon] pl. 295 fig. 380 in Dillenius (1732) ( Fig. 7 ).

Epitype (designated here): ― JAMAICA. St. Andrew : Hope River, about 1 mi E of Mona, ca. 152 m, 12 December 1957, Yuncker 17727 (NY1496096!, corpus, areolae, spinae, flos, fructus, Fig. 8 ) .

= Opuntia dillenii (Ker Gawler 1818: pl. 255) Haworth (1819: 79) .

Lectotype (designated by Benson 1969: 126):―[Icon] pl. 255 in Ker Gawler (1818) (reproduced in Crook & Mottram 1996: 118, fig. 13).

Etymology: ―From Spanish tuna , a vernacular name referring to the fruit of Opuntia ( Crook & Mottram 2004, Eggli & Newton 2004).

Typification of Cactus tuna : ―Doubts and questions over the iconographic lectotype proposed by Hunt et al. (2006: 213) can be resolved choosing an epitype from preserved material to better define the name (Art. 9.9 of ICN).

The descriptions and the images reported in the protologue of Cactus tuna (see Linnaeus 1753: 468), as well as the lectotype [Dillenius’ (1732) pl. 295 fig. 380], designated by Crook & Mottram (2004: 61) and the epitype [Yuncker 17727 (NY1496096!), here designated] of the species morphologycally match the Opuntia dillenii species concept ( Proctor 1984: 320–321 fig. 90; Howard 1989: 412; Liogier 1994: 322–325 fig. 95–8) and its type [lectotype, i.e. the plate no 255 in Ker Gawler (1818), designated by Benson 1969: 126]; important characters are: cladodes from ovate to oblong, spines subulate, brownish yellow, yellow flower and fruit normally long pyriform with a narrowed base. All these characters are different from those characterizing O. kingstoniana (– Opuntia tuna sensu Britton & Rose ; here newly described, see above) which can be distinguished by its shrubby habit, with cladodes obovate, spines acicular, greyish and fruit short-obovoid. Furthermore, note that the provenance of Cactus tuna reported by Linnaeus (1753: 468), i.e. “ Jamaica & America calidiore ”, refers to O. dillenii for Jamaica, being this species the only one occurring in the island with this cited distribution. According to Schumann (1899: 724), O. tuna is the valid name with priority for the plant known nowadays as O. dillenii and it differs from the Jamaican species here described and collected in Kingston by Rose ( O. kingstoniana ). The collectors of the specimens here studied have correctly applied the name O. tuna as conceptually defined here.

Chorology: ―Caribbean, SE-United States, E-Mexico, N-South America ( Britton & Rose 1919: 162).

Illustrations examined: ― Dillenius (1732: pl. 295 figs. 380–381, pl. 296 fig. 382, reproduced in Crook & Mottram 1996: 123 fig. 16, 126 fig. 17), Sloane (1725: pl. 224 fig. 1, deposited in Sloane’s Herbarium at BM, Fig. 9 ), Edwards (1818: pl. 255, reproduced in Crook & Mottram 1996: 118 fig. 13).

Relevant literature: ― Schumann (1899), Britton & Rose (1919).

Specimen examined:― CAYMAN ISLANDS. East End, 1 July 1938, 3–4.5 m, Kings 226 (1496098 NY!, corp, ar, sp, fl) .

Figures

FIGURE 7. The lectotype of Opuntia tuna, representing a coloured drawing of a flowering branch composed by two cladodes and a seedling, included in Dillenius (1732: pl. 295 fig. 380). Photo. R. Mottram.

FIGURE 8. Epitype designated here of Opuntia tuna from St. Andrew, collected by Yuncker 17727, including a flowering and fruiting cladode section, characterized by the typical brownish banded and flattened spines of Opuntia dillenii (= O. tuna), deposited at NY. Photo. © New York Botanical Garden.

FIGURE 9. A colour version of the fig. 1 included in Sloane (1725: pl. 224), with the typical pyriform fruits, two entire and one sectioned of Opuntia dillenii (= O. tuna) (BM). Photo. R. Mottram.