Lonicera implexa Aiton (1789: 231)

Ferrer-Gallego, P. Pablo & Laguna, Emilio, 2018, The nomenclatural types of four names in Lonicera (Caprifoliaceae), Phytotaxa 345 (3), pp. 286-292 : 287-288

Lonicera implexa Aiton (1789: 231)

Type (neotype, designated here):—[ EX HORT], Hort. Pitcairne [William Pitcairn], Planta forte e Minorca ( BM barcode BM 001134432 [digital image!]) (image of the neotype available at: http://data.nhm.ac.uk/object/d61adcf5-0955-46e0-b8ea-f7224c43876f).

Notes: —Aiton’s protologue consisted of a short diagnosis (“ L. floribus ringentibus verticillatus, bracteis laevibus, foliis perennantibus glabris oblongis: superioribus connate-perfoliatis: summis dilatatis”) followed by six annotations: 1) “ Minorca Honey-suckle”, 2) “ Nat . of Minorca ”, 3) “ Introd. about 1772, by Mons. Richard.”, 4) “ Fl. June–September.”, 5) “Obs. Folia minora et angustiora quam in plerisque speciebus hujus generis.”, and 6) “ H. Ђ.”, indicating that this species is hardy [ H.] and shrubby [Ђ.].

William Aiton set to work in the 1780s to catalogue every plant being grown at Kew. The result, published in 1789, was called Hortus kewensis and included information on the country of origin of every plant, and who first cultivated it in Britain, and when. Aiton instituted a sort of kindly rivalry between William Pitcairn (1712–1791), and Mr. James Lee of Hammersmith (1715–1795). Every acquisition of new seeds or plants was equally shared by these three cultivators, who, pursuing various methods of culture, of course had differing success. However, these authors divided and distributed his stock of plants with his fellows ( Hepper 1982, Desmond 2007).

Rosselló & Sáez (2008: 61) indicated that the type material was “not traced, and to be searched at K ”. However, we have been unable to locate any original material at K. As indicated by Stafleu & Cowan (1976: 25) almost all types of both editions of the Hortus kewensis are in the Banksian herbarium at BM. However, the botanical descriptions in the Hortus kewensis were not made by the Aitons (William Aiton [1731–1793] and William Townsend Aiton [1766– 1849]), but by Daniel Carl Solander, Jonas Carlsson Dryander and Robert Brown, based on material from Kew. On the other hand, some of the new taxa described in the first edition of the Hortus kewensis, published in 1789, originated from L’Héritier (so indicated) and the types of those taxa are in the L’Héritier herbarium at G-DC.

The Solander’s botanical manuscript was used by J. Dryander for Aiton’s Hortus kewensis eds. 1 and 2, and is preserved at BM (see Rauschenberg 1968, Bridson et al. 1980, Stafleu & Cowan 1985: 721). In the page 627 of the Solander’s manuscript is described Lonicera implexa ; the species was collected by Richard in Minorca, about 1772, and cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew. However, we have not found any herbarium sheet with original material from Aiton, Solander, Dryander or Brown of this species in the herbaria consulted (e.g., BM, K, G, and P).

In the herbarium BM there is a relevant specimen, with barcode BM 001134432. The sheet bears a well preserved fragment, with leaves and flowers, and a label “Hort. Pitcairne [William Pitcairn] / Planta forte e Minorca ”. The sheet is also annotated “The type, both in Solander MSS v. 627 Ait. is a plant introduced from Minorca by Richard. This specimen is not Type but if the name were originally in Solander’s hand it is idiotype”, handwritten by an unknown author in 1923.

Although, clearly important, this specimen at BM lacks any annotation of Aiton, Solander or Dryander, and so, it cannot be considered certainly as original material (according to Art. 9.3 (a) of the ICN, McNeill et al. 2012). Unfortunately it is not possible to establish any link between this material and the Aitons. However, in our opinion the specimen BM 001134432 can be a good candidate as the neotype of the name, despite the specimen was cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, the geographical locality from the original material agrees with the locality given in the protologue, and the specimen could have been used by Aiton since it was cultivated by a contemporary and colleague author (William Pitcairn) in the same garden where Aiton worked. This specimen represents the traditional concept and current use of the name Lonicera implexa (e.g., Browicz 1976, López González 2001, Ruiz de la Torre 2006, Ruiz Téllez & Devesa 2007) and is designated as the neotype of the name.