Sesleria insularis Sommier (1905: 126)

Alonso, Alicia, Acedo, Carmen, Pietro, Romeo Di, Iamonico, Duilio & Llamas, Félix, 2016, Typification of some names in the genus Sesleria (Poaceae), Phytotaxa 253 (3), pp. 191-200 : 197-198

3. Sesleria insularis Sommier (1905: 126)

First-step lectotype:― ITALY. Sardegna: Sassari, Golfo Aranci, Rocca rubia, 19 April 1903, Gestro s.n. (FI-007268!), designated by Ujhelyi 1939: 76. Second-step lectotype (designated by Ujhelyi 1959: 608):― ITALY. Sardegna: Sassari, Golfo Aranci, Rocca rubia, 19 April 1903, Gestro s.n. (FI-007267!). Images available at http://parlatore.msn.unifi.it/types/search.php

Notes:— Sommier (1905: 126‒127) provided a detailed diagnosis, the provenance (“In Sardinia: Golfo degli Aranci, Capo Figari (et in insula Majorca?)…sa Rocca Rubia”), the collector and collection date (“R. Gestri… 19 aprile 1903 ”). Sommier (1905) also discussed about two specimens included in the Levier’s collection (no. 144, identified as Sesleria coerulea ) and collected by C. I. Forsyth Major in the locality Capo Figari. Furthermore, Sommier (1905) stated that a specimen collected by Cambessedes’ from the Balearic Islands and housed at B had to be addressed to his new species. Unfortunately, we were not able to trace either the two Levier’s specimens, or the Cambessedes specimen at B, the latter one being probably destroyed during the bombing of B. On the other hand, we found two sheets at P collected by Cambessedes in Majorca. Images are displayed at http://coldb.mnhn.fr/catalognumber/mnhn/p/p02657947 and http://coldb.mnhn.fr/catalognumber/mnhn/p/p02657948. On the other hand, the specimens coming from Sa Rocca Rubia in the Sardinia Island occur in the Florence Herbarium and turned out to be diagnostic for the typification of S. insularis .

Ujhelyi (1939), in a paper strictly concerning the taxonomy of S. insularis Sommier , provided a list of specimens for Sesleria insularis that he had observed in various European Herbaria. One of these specimens was reported as follows: “Golfo Aranci ( Gestro, Herb. Centr. Italicum , Typus)”. According to the Art. 7.10 of ICN, the phrase “designated here” is not required for the typification purpose in papers published before January, 1st 2001 so this lectotypification is considered as valid. However, since there are three specimens preserved at FI and collected by R. Gestro at the locality “Sa Rocca Rubia”, and all reporting the date of April 19th 1903 (the same reported by Sommier in the protologue of S. insularis ) these must be considered as syntypes (Art. 9.5 of ICN). As a consequence, the Ujhelyi’s (1939) lectotypification is here considered as still incomplete (“first-step” according to the art. 9.17 of ICN). Subsequently Ujhelyi (1959: 608) provided a new citation of a “Typus” for S. insularis . UJhelyi (1959) listed several specimens for Sesleria insularis among whose one from the Sardinia Island that was quoted as: “Provincia di Sassari, Golfo Aranci, La Rocca Rubia, 1903, leg. G. Gestro ”. As regards this specimen, however, Ujhelyi (1959) did not indicate neither the herbarium nor the institution in which it was deposited. Despite this it is supposable that Ujhelyi examined only the specimens preserved at FI since the Herbarium central e Italicum of Florence is the only Italian Herbarium he quoted in the text (the author explicitly wrote: “The material deposited in the Herbarium central of Florence has been of the greatest usefulness”). All things stated we should consider as valid the 1959 Ujhelyi typification of S. insularis (second-step, Art. 9.17).

In fact, Rossi & Ubaldi (1995) had already interpreted the 1959 Ujhelyi’s statements as the designation of the lectotype for Sesleria insularis . The Ujhelyi (1959) typification, however, is still not complete due to the lack of the designation of a lectotype that had to be identified amongst the three specimens collected by Gestro . One (FI-007267) out of these three syntypes bears an original label exactly matching the data reported in the protologue by Sommier (1905: 128). On the same sheet there is a label by Ujhelyi: “ Typus Sesleria insularis Sommier | 6.VIII.1958 | Ujhelyi ”. It is supposable, therefore, that the specimen reported as typus of S. insularis in Ujhelyi (1959) made reference precisely to the specimen FI-007267 which was directly labelled as typus by Ujhelyi in the previous year (1958).

As a consequence, we consider valid the lectotypification of Sesleria insularis made by Ujhelyi being this latter perfectly in accordance with Art. 9.17 (see Ex. 12 of this Article). Accordingly, Ujhelyi (1939) through the designation of the material collected by Gestro and deposited in FI provided the [first-step] lectotype. Owing to the occurrence of three specimens of the Gestro’s gathering at FI, Ujhelyi designated one of them (FI-007267!) as the [second-step] lectotype. Based on the art. 9.17, in subsequent references, both lectotypification steps may be cited in sequence.