Viola magellanica Georg Forster (1787: 41)

Nicola, Marcela Viviana, Salomón, Luciana & Zuloaga, Fernando Omar, 2018, Nomenclatural and taxonomic study in species of Viola (Violaceae) from Argentina, Phytotaxa 338 (2), pp. 151-176 : 167

Viola magellanica Georg Forster (1787: 41)

Type (lectotype, designated here):— [ ARGENTINA. Tierra del Fuego: / CHILE. XII Region:] Tierra del Fuego , G. Forster s.n. (K 000535037 lower left plant [digital image!]; isolectotype, B W 04902 –01 0 [digital image!]) .

Protologue citation:—“Habitat in uliginosis.”

Distribution:—Native of Argentina and Chile. In Argentina it is known for the provinces of Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.

Notes:—It is not possible to state where the original Forster herbarium is preserved ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976), but we found specimens in different herbaria which might correspond to the original material of Viola magellanica collected by Johann Georg Adam Forster during the second voyage of Captain James Cook. We selected the specimen with the barcode number K 000535037 as the lectotype because it agrees with the protologue, possesses a label belonging to the Forster herbarium, and has another label with the name of the species. The following specimen is a possible isolectotype: G. Forster s.n. (S11-34254 [digital image!]).

With respect to the ambiguous information of the locality of the type material, we clarify that Forster (1777) wrote about various aspects of Tierra del Fuego such as clime, flora, fauna, and native humane populations without specifying if he was situated on the Argentine or the Chilean side of the big island of Tierra del Fuego. At the time the specimen was collected boundaries between Argentina and Chile were not established ; both countries were part of the same territory, the “ Virreinato del Río de La Plata ”. It was not until 1881 that Chile and Argentina signed a treaty of limits (https://www.dipublico.org/3634/tratado-de-limites-con-chile-de-1881/). Therefore, this specimen was gathered either in Argentina or Chile, following the present delimitation .