Plantago afra, Linnaeus, 1762

Iamonico, Duilio, Fortini, Paola & Pietro, Romeo Di, 2019, Typification of the Linnaean names Plantago afra, P. altissima, and P. lagopus (Plantago subg. Psyllium, Plantaginaceae), Phytotaxa 405 (4), pp. 210-214 : 211

Plantago afra

Linnaeus’ protologue ( Linnaeus 1762: 168) consisted of a short diagnosis (“ PLANTAGO caule ramoso fruticoso, foliis laceolatis dentatis, capitulis aphyllis ”), and two synonyms, the first one (“Psyllium, foliis crenatis, indicum”) cited from Bauhin (1620: 191; 1623: 191), Morison (1699: 262), and Bauhin & Cherler (1651: 513), the second synonym (“ Psyllium foliis laciniatis”) cited from Boccone (1674: 8). The provenance (“ Habitat in Sicilia, Barbaria ”), and a short description was also provided. Boccone (1674) and Morison (1699) published illustrations (images respectively available at http://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/ing/Libro.php?Libro=1487&Pagina=23, and http://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/ing/ Libro.php?Libro=5556&Pagina=275) which are part of the original material and each one elegible as lectotype (Arts. 9.3, and 9.4 of ICN).

Verdcourt (1971: 6) indicated the afore-mentioned Morison illustration as a syntype and suggested that Linnaeus’ reference to North Africa and his description of Plantago afra were probably derived from the fact that he had the possibility to observe Brander’s specimen from Algiers (144.31, LINN). A syntype is not, by definition, the sole type of a name, unlike a holotype, lectotype or neotype. Hence Verdcourt’s statement cannot be accepted as correctable to lectotype under Art. 9.10 of ICN.

We traced one relevant sheet at LINN (no. 144.31) which bears one plant, and the Linnaean annotation “ afra Algir [ica] [on verso:] Psyllium foliis crenatis indicum. Bauh. pin. Psyllium fol . laciniatis Boccon. ”. This Linnaean specimen is part of the original material, and it matches the diagnosis.

Summarizing, three elements were identified as candidates for the lectotypification of Plantago afra : the specimen at LINN and the two illustrations, by Boccone and Morison, respectively. Herbarium specimens being better suited for typification than illustrations due to their ability to provide useful additional characters that cannot be matched by images (see Jarvis 2007: 21–22), we designate here the specimen LINN-144.31 as the lectotype of the name Plantago afra . According to the current treatments of Plantago (see e.g., Moore 1976, Pignatti 1982, Pedrol 2008), LINN-144.31 is to be included in the subg. Psyllium due to the occurrence of opposite leaves along the stem. At species rank it is identified as P. afra on the basis of the following characters: annual plant, linear leaves with irregularly dentate margins, bracts all similar in shape. Both the height of the plant (30 cm) and its habitus (branches ascending) allow us to identify it as P. afra subsp. afra being the other subspecies [ subsp. zwierleinii ( Nicotra 1890: 67) Brullo (1985: 9) ] a plant with significantly shorter stems, and typically prostrate branches ( Brullo 1985).