Juno fumosa Kamelin (1973: 252)

Crespo, Manuel B., Martínez-Azorín, Mario & Mavrodiev, Evgeny V., 2018, Notes on taxonomy and nomenclature of juno irises (Juno, Iridaceae), Phytotaxa 376 (5), pp. 185-200 : 187-189

Juno fumosa Kamelin (1973: 252)

≡ Iris fumosa Boiss. & Hausskn. in Boissier (1882: 123), ex descript. syn. excl. [replaced synonym] (Art. 58.1 Note 1 Ex. 7 of the ICN) ≡ Iris aucheri var. fumosa (Kamelin) Bolt. in Boltenkov& Govaerts (2017: 135) ≡ Thelysia fumosa Decaisne (1874: 304) , ex typo, nom. illeg. Lectotype (designated here): — SYRIA. [Label 1: handwritten] “404 / Iris Aleppensis fumosa sp. nov. / flor. albo-virescentibus / In agris & graminosis Dschebel Muhassan, / pr. Aleppo / (etiam pr. Turmanin) / 17.3.[18]65, CH. / leg. Carl Haussknecht [printed]”; [Label 2: handwritten]: Juno aucheri (Bak.) Rodion. /19 [printed] 75 rev. [printed] W. Schulze / Herbarium Haussknecht [printed]” (JE00020054 [digital image!]; Fig. 1 ). Isolectotypes: JE00020055 [digital image!], K00499012 [digital image!], MW00021790 [digital image!], P02158470 [digital image!], P02158485 [digital image!].

Observations:—The name Juno fumosa Kamelin (1973: 252) is involved in an interesting nomenclatural issue. The first name published in that aggregate bearing the epithet “ fumosa ” seems to be Thelysia fumosa Decne. In the protologue, the flowers were described as “ pallide caeruleis ” (pale bluish), the sentence “ Iris fumosa Boiss. exsicc. Haussknecht” was added, and some collections were cited, among which the type material of Xiphion aucheri Baker (Aucher-Éloy 2137) was included. As said before, this fact makes Decaisne’s name illegitimate according to Art. 52.1 & 52.2(e) of the ICN, as well as application of those articles also makes “ Iris fumosa Boiss. & Hausskn. ” illegitimate, because it included X. aucheri in synonymy despite both names applied to different taxa. When Kamelin (1973) published his intended new combination “ J. fumosa (Boiss. & Hausskn.) Kamelin ”, he did not recognise explicitly J. aucheri (Baker) Klatt as different, and therefore accepted implicitly synonymisation by Boissier (1882: 133). However, J. fumosa Kamelin (considered as a replacement name for the illegitimate “ I. fumosa ”) is legitimate under Art. 58.1 Note 1 Ex. 7, because in 1973 the epithet aucheri that ought to have been adopted was not available in Juno , since it was in use for a different species.

According to Boissier’s (1882) protologue, which is the basis for Kamelin’s replacement name, “ Iris fumosa ” produces flowers with perianth segments pale yellow-greenish somewhat smoky tinged (“ ochroleuco-virentis plus minusve fumoso-suffusi ”), which is also similar to Haussknecht’s annotation about the colour of flowers (“ Fl. albo-virescentibus ”) on the label of the lectotype of Thelysia fumosa (JE00020054 [digital image!]) designated by Boltenkov in Boltenkov & Govaerts (2017). These authors however interpreted the latter taxon to be a bluish colour variant of Juno aucheri , probably after Decaisne’s assertion in his protologue which could be due to a misinterpretation of a poorly conserved flower colour in the dried material of Haussknecht’s exsiccata, as commented above. We do not share such an assumption.

Populations of Juno fumosa Kamelin occur in northwestern Syria, namely near Aleppo and Turmanin, from where the type was collected ( Boissier 1882: 123). Chromosome counts from that area yielded 2n = 24 (cfr. Bareka & Kamari 1999 as “ I. aucheri ”, M. Johnson & T. Hall unpubl.), therefore differing from the morphologically close J. aucheri s.str. (2n = 22; cfr. Hall 2001, M. Johnson & T. Hall unpubl.). Flowers of J. fumosa are said to be very pale greenish-yellow to smoky yellow, but material is found in which they are pale translucent powdery-blue (T. Hall pers. comm.); standards are smaller than in J. aucheri and narrowly obovate, with involute irregularly toothed margin.

In the protologue of Iris fumosa the following sentence was included: “Hab. in agris et siccis calcareis Syriae ad Aleppo et Turmanin (Ky. 252! Haussk!). Fl. Marte.” We have traced several vouchers relevant for typification at JE, K, MW and P, which fit with the data on type localities and flowering period. Among them, the voucher JE00020054 ( Fig. 1 ), from Haussknecht’s personal collection at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, is designated here as lectotype for “ Iris fumosa ”, since the label reads almost exactly the same as the sentence in the protologue.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Lectotype of Juno fumosa Kamelin (JE00020054). Reproduced with permission (Herbarium Haussknecht, Friedrich-Schiller- Universität Jena, Austria).