Ligularia japonica (L. f.) Candolle (1838: 316)

Li, Cheng-Sheng, Wu, Hai-Song, Fei, Wen-Qun & Ren, Chen, 2022, Clarification of the taxonomic and nomenclatural confusion about Arnica japonica L. f. and A. japonica Thunb. (Asteraceae: Senecioneae), Phytotaxa 570 (2), pp. 217-222 : 220

Ligularia japonica (L. f.) Candolle (1838: 316) .

Arnica japonica Linnaeus fil. (1782: 376). Arnica palmata Thunb. in Murray (1784: 768), non. illegit. superfl., quoad Arnica japonica L. f. Senecio japonicus Schultz (1845: 50) , nom. illegit., non Thunb. in Murray (1784). Fig. 1B, D .

Type:— JAPAN. Thunberg s.n. (lectotype designated here: LINN-HS 1322.1!) .

= Arnica japonica Thunb. in Murray (1784: 768), nom. illegit., non Linnaeus fil. (1782). Doronicum japonicum Lamarck (1786: 314) . Erythrochaete palmatifida Siebold & Zuccarini (1846: 189) , nom. illegit. superfl. Senecio palmatifidus Wittrock & Juel (1891: 86) . Senecillis japonica (Lam.) Kitamura (1939: 83) . Ligularia palmatifida (Wittr. & Juel) Nakai (1950: 135) .

Type:— JAPAN. Thunberg s.n. (lectotype first-step designated by Wijnands (1990: 7): UPS-THUNB 19996!; second-step designated here: the right three parts of UPS-THUNB 19996!) .

Notes:—The authorship of Ligularia japonica has generally been ascribed to “Less.” or “(Thunb.) Less.” However, as already pointed out by Dress (1962), Lessing (1832) did not make a formal combination, although he suggested that Arnica japonica Thunb. should be transferred to Ligularia . Ligularia japonica was thus not validly published by Lessing (1832).

Following Lessing (1832), Candolle (1838: 316) proposed the combination Ligularia japonica , although he clearly mentioned that he did not know the species well (“non satis nota”). Candolle (1838: 316) included both Arnica japonica L. f. and A. japonica Thunb. as synonyms. This made L. japonica a combination based on Linnaeus fil.’s name, which had priority.

Erythrochaete palmatifida Sieb. & Zucc. has generally been accepted as the earliest legitimate name for Arnica japonica Thunb. (e.g., Dress 1962; Wijnands 1990), and Senecio palmatifidus and Ligularia palmatifida are considered as combinations based on E. palmatifida . However, Doronicum japonicum Lamarck (1786) , which has long been overlooked, is actually an earlier replacement name for A. japonica Thunb. This makes Erythrochaete palmatifida a superfluous name, because the epithet of D. japonicum should have been adopted in Erythrochaete . However, S. palmatifidus and L. palmatifida are still legitimate, because, in Senecio and Ligularia , the epithet of D. japonicum has been preoccupied by S. japonicus Thunb. and L. japonica (L. f.) DC., respectively. Senecio palmatifidus thus should be treated as a replacement name for D. japonicum in Senecio , and L. palmatifida is a combination based on S. palmatifidus .

The lectotype of Arnica japonica Thunb., UPS-THUNB 19996, is mixed. The leftmost part has a peltate leaf, indicating that it is a member of Syneilesis . The right three parts belong to Ligularia japonica and are here designated as the lectotype.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Lectotypes of Syneilesis palmata (A), Arnica japonica Thunb. (B), Gynura japonica (C), and Arnica japonica L. f. (D). A. UPS-THUNB 20005. B. UPS-THUNB 19996; the leftmost part (red arrow) belongs to Syneilesis sp., and the right three parts (blue arrows) are designated as the lectotype of Arnica japonica Thunb. C. UPS-THUNB 19669. D. LINN-HS 1322.1; inserted images show the enlarged annotations; the lower one reads “H L. fil. e Japonia Thunb.”, and the upper one reads “Arnica japonica fol. pinnatifidi”, with a word between “fol.” and “pinnatifidi”, seemingly “pedatifidi”, being deleted.