Passiflora vesicaria Linnaeus (1759: 20)

Svoboda, Harlan T., Macdougal, John M. & Ballard, Harvey E., 2016, Typifications and nomenclatural notes in Passiflora section Dysosmia (Passifloraceae), Phytotaxa 288 (2), pp. 101-119 : 110

15. Passiflora vesicaria Linnaeus (1759: 20)

Lectotype (here designated):— JAMAICA. Without locality, no date, P. Browne s.n. ( S08-4074 !).

Notes: —The history of P. vesicaria , as well as its relationship with P. foetida , is a complicated one. When Linnaeus first described P. foetida in his Species Plantarum (1753: 959) he referenced five polynomials published in seven separate works, one being Passiflora florum involucris triphyllis multifido-capillaribus from his own Hortus Cliffortianus (Linnaeus 1737: 431). Three years later in the Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, Patrick Browne (1756: 327) used this polynomial as the basis for a new taxon that he distinguished separate from P. foetida , calling it “ Passiflora 1. Vesicaria ; florum involucris triphyllis multifido-capillaribus.” However, because Browne did not consistently use binomials in his work, it was not a validly published name and therefore has no nomenclatural standing.

It was another three years before Linnaeus (1759: 20) conceded with Browne that some of the polynomials originally used to describe P. foetida were in fact representing a different taxon. Linnaeus thus named the new species P. vesicaria referencing “327,” the page on which Browne’s (1756) new taxon was identified, thereby creating a valid binomial name.

There exists only one specimen that can be considered original material for this name: a pressed plant that Browne himself collected in Jamaica (S08-4074) which bears the species name in Linnaeus’ hand. This specimen was first cited as original material in Jarvis (2007: 727), and later confirmed by Vanderplank (2014: 349), who cited it as a holotype thus not effecting typification under Art. 9.23 and 7.10 of the ICN (McNeill et al. 2012). The herbarium specimen S08- 4074 is here formally designated as the lectotype of the name.