Salsola foetida, Delile ex Sprengel, 1813

Falatoury, Atiye Nejad, Iamonico, Duilio & Freitag, Helmut, 2017, Nomenclature of Caroxylon imbricatum s. lat. (Amaranthaceae / Chenopodiaceae), with a new combination at variety rank, Phytotaxa 331 (1), pp. 101-108 : 102-104

Salsola foetida by Sprengel

The name Salsola foetida was introduced by Delile (1813: 57) as species no. 310, together with the vernacular Arabic name “mulleyh” and the provenance “Aeg. Sup. [Upper Egypt]”. However, since neither a diagnosis nor a description was given, Delile’s “ S. foetida ” is nomen nudum and was thus not validly published (Art. 38.2 of the ICN, Ex. 1). One specimen, which is kept at MPU (code 310725, see Fig. 1 ) and which carries a pertinent description and other data in Delile’s hand [“ Odor Chenopdium vulvaria fortissime, / folia carnosa sessilia cordata imbricata / plantae juvinis folia interdum angustata / [unreadable] (Mullah arab.) dans les ravins en allant aux tombeaux / des rois = “in ravines leading to the tombs of kings”) [Theben]”], should be part of the original material used by Delile (l.c.) to propose his S. foetida .

“ Salsola foetida Delile ” was later validated by Sprengel (1824: 925) through a short diagnosis (“ S. [ Salsola ] foliis teretibus abbreviatis acutiusculis incanis, floribus spicatis, caule fruticoso. Aegypt ”). However, Sprengel’s name is a later homonym of S. foetida Vest ex Schultes (1820: 238) and as a consequence it is illegitimate under Art. 53.1 of the ICN.

As to the typification of Salsola foetida, Boulos (1991: 139) cited a possible holotype kept in MPU but he added a question mark because he did not see it. However, it is most unlikely that Sprengel was familiar with the specimen from MPU mentioned above because otherwise he would probably have used Delile’s description. He eventually had seen a duplicate of Delile’s collection that probably was kept in B but destroyed during World War II. This MPU specimen bears a label which is written in parts by Delile as “Gebel Ghareb près la mer rouge / Apporté du Ghebel Ghareb par le Cn [Commandant] Berte / Offr d’ artillerie” 1 (“Ghebel Ghareb [now Jebel Gharib] near the Red Sea / brought from Ghebel Ghareb by Commander Berte / Artillery Officer”) and it is here designated as the lectotype of the name Salsola foetida Del. ex Spreng.

We found two further specimens in Delile’s collection at P (barcodes P00799063 and P00799064), but none of them bears notes in Delile’s hand. Both these specimens were seen by Moquin-Tandon, who listed them under Caroxylon foetidum (Schult. 1820: 269) Moquin-Tandon (1849: 178) . The specimen P00799063 is remarkable by a ticket that contains the draft of a description and a series of nice pencil drawings in Moquin-Tandon’s hand. We consider these two specimens as duplicates of the MPU one and so isolectotypes of Salsola foetida Del. ex Spreng.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Lectotype of Salsola foetida (by courtesy of the University herbarium Montpellier, MPU).