Agave amica (Medikus) Thiede & Govaerts, 2017

Thiede, Joachim & Govaerts, Rafaël, 2017, New combinations in Agave (Asparagaceae): A. amica, A. nanchititlensis, and A. quilae, Phytotaxa 306 (3), pp. 237-240 : 237-238

Agave amica (Medikus) Thiede & Govaerts , comb. nov. (77153983-1)

Basionym: Tuberosa amica Medikus (1790: 430)

≡ Polianthes tuberosa Linnaeus (1753: 316) ≡ Agave tuberosa (L.) Thiede & Eggli (1999: 112), nom. illeg., Art. 53.1. ≡ Agave polianthes Thiede & Eggli (2001: 166) . Type (lectotype, designated by Verhoek in Jarvis et al. 1993: 78): Herb. Hermann 3: 34, No. 125 (BM-000594676, digital image seen).

= Crinum angustifolium Houttuyn (1780: 165) .

= Polianthes gracilis Link (1821: 330) ≡ Polianthes tuberosa var. gracilis (Link) Beurling (1854 publ. 1856: 110).

= Polianthes tuberosa f. plena Moldenke (1948: 41) .

When transferring Polianthes tuberosa into Agave, Thiede & Eggli (2001: 166) published the replacement name Agave polianthes due to the earlier Agave tuberos a Miller (1768: n.º 4). Later, the homotypic Tuberosa amica became known, which is the oldest binomial whose epithet is not preoccupied in Agave , thus needing the above new combination.

A gave amica is the ‘Tuberose’ or ‘Nardo’, a bulbous plant with white nocturnal flowers with intensive odor, best known as Polianthes tuberosa . The Tuberose is cultivated worldwide in (sub-)tropical regions where it represents one of the most important cut flowers, grown commercially as cut flower in India, New Zealand, Japan and Mexico, and for the perfume industry in India and France ( Barba-González et al. 2012).

The Tuberose was already cultivated in Mexico by the Aztecs in pre-conquest times as a perfume flower named “Omixochitl” (= bone flower) and illustrated in several early Spanish codices of the conquest time ( Trueblood 1973). In the 1651 edition of Hernandez’ ‘Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus’, the Tuberose is illustrated as “De Omizochitl” (omixochitl) and its origin given as “Provenit in frigidis, & temperatis regionibus” ( Hernandez 1651: 277). The Tuberose is still known from cultivation only and of unknown origin in the wild, but most probably originated in Mexico where all species of the genus Polianthes are native ( Solano 2002). It may have originated in Jalisco ( Mexico) where the similar Agave dolichantha Thiede & Eggli (1999: 111 ; ≡ Polianthes longiflora Rose 1903: 10 ) was rediscovered in the wild (Cedano et al. 1995; Cházaro & Machuca 1995).