Sorbus aperta Koehne (1913: 465)

Chen, Xin, 2016, Typification of seven names of Sorbus (Rosaceae) from China, Phytotaxa 243 (1), pp. 97-99 : 97

Sorbus aperta Koehne (1913: 465)

Type :— CHINA. Sichuan: “Western Szechuan, Min valley, Mao-chou”, alt. 7500 ft., Oct. 1910, E. H. Wilson 4155 [A-00040986!, lectotype (designated here); isolectotype K-000758128!] .

Homotypic synonym:— Sorbus hupehensis var. aperta (Koehne) C.K. Schneider (1917: 403) .

Two gatherings, Wilson 4155 and Giraldi 5129, were cited in the protologue and no holotype was designated. In the taxonomic notes of the species, Koenhe (1913) pointed out that Giraldi’s specimen differs slightly from the Wilson’s, and provided a brief description which “should be added to the description” for it. It seemed that he tended to describe the new species only based on the Wilson’s gathering. One duplicate of Wilson 4155 was found at herbaria A (A-00040986) and K (K-000758128), respectively, and the former is designated as the lectotype.

S. aperta was treated as a variety of S. hupehensis C. K. Schneider (1906: 316) by Schneider (1917). In recently published floras ( Yu & Lu 1974, Lu & Spongberg 2003), the former was treated as a synonym of the latter. However, McAllister (2005) argued that the former “could be either diploid (in which case, a synonym of S. discolor ), or tetraploid and, as such, would represent further apomictic microspecies”. Further studies on this taxon are needed, and at the moment I prefer to keep it at specific rank.