Tagetes pauciloba, Candolle, 1836

Schiavinato, Dario J. & Bartoli, Adriana, 2018, About the identity of Tagetes pauciloba (Asteraceae, Tageteae), Phytotaxa 362 (2), pp. 200-210 : 201

Clarification of Tagetes pauciloba

Our examination of the protologues and digital images of type specimens showed that Tagetes pauciloba and T. filifolia are actually different: T. pauciloba has a perennial habit with pedunculate capitula (occasionally subsessil) and cylindrical involucre with 5 phyllaries, mutic, with linear glands; ray florets ca. 5. On the other hand, T. filifolia is annual, with sessile or subsessile (occasionally pedunculated) capitula and fusiform involucres with 5 phyllaries, apex toothed, with punctiform glands; ray florets 1–3 (see Table 1). For the differences outlined above, T. pauciloba is here rehabilited as a valid species.

Moreover, our critical analysis of the protologue and type specimen of T. mendocina revealed that it is identical to T. pauciloba , differing only in the number of leaf lobes: in T. pauciloba the leaves have 1–2 pairs of segments, while in T. mendocina they have 3–5 pairs of segments. Several botanists (e.g. Ariza Espinar 1967; Gutiérrez & Stampacchio 2015) indicated that the latter species shows leaves with a variable level of division, depending on their position in the plant architecture: lower leaves can have up to 6 pairs of segments; upper leaves can have 1 or 2 pairs of segments. Our examination of herbarium specimens and our observations in the field confirmed that. For the evidence stated above, we conclude that T. mendocina is a synonym of T. pauciloba .