Sesleria autumnalis ( Scopoli 1772: 56 ) F.W. Schultz (1855: 318)

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 : 195-197

2. Sesleria autumnalis ( Scopoli 1772: 56) F.W. Schultz (1855: 318) .

Basionym: Phleum autumnale Scopoli (1772: 56) .

Neotype (designated here):— ITALY. Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Medea , hills, 165 m a.s.l., 12 September 2014, Poldini s.n. (HFLA!).

Isoneotypes TS!, BEOU! (Fig. 3). = Sesleria elongata Host (1802: 69) . Lectotype (designated here):—[Icon] t. 97 in Host (1802). Image available at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/9920#page/272/6/

mode/1up‒ Epitype (designated here):—UNSPECIFIED COUNTRY. Unknown locality and date, Host (W-1885-0002435!). Image available at

http://herbarium.univie.ac.at/database/detail.php?ID=256563 − Aira alba Wulfen ex Kunth (1829: 110) , nom. inval. (art. 36.1c of ICN, McNeill et al. 2012).

Notes:—The history of Sesleria autumnalis started when Scopoli (1772: 56) published the name Phleum autumnale in the 2 nd edition of Flora Carniolica where he provided a short diagnosis (“ Florescentia autumnalis . Spica longa, facta pedunculis simplicibus. Calyx breviter aristatus , petalo utroque bifido longior ”), a detailed morphological description, and the provenance (“ Inveni in M. Medeae ”) which corresponds to the territory surrounding the village of Monte di Medea in the Friulian karst (NE-Italy). Scopoli included his new species in the genus Phleum Linnaeus (1753: 52) although he had already described the genus Sesleria in the 1 st edition of Flora Carniolica ( Scopoli 1760: 189) . Thirty years later, it was described the new species named Sesleria elongata Host (1802: 69) . Just like Scopoli, Host also provided a short diagnosis (“ S. [ Sesleria ] spica elongata subcylindrica erecta , spiculis aristatis subtrifloris, inferioribus bracteatis ”), a detailed description, and the species provenance (“ In Istriae, litoralis, Forijlii pratis, collibus, alibique ”) together with an illustration (“ Tab. 97 ”). No reference to Scopoli’s Pheum autumnale was reported in Host (1802).

In fact, no citations of the Scopoli’s taxon Phleum autumnale as a good species have been traced in literature. However, the name P. autumnale was reported as a synonym of S. elongata by Röhlings (1823: 625), and a new combination was proposed as S. caerulea Scop. var. (δ) elongata ( Host 1802: 69) Bertoloni (1833 ‒1834: 504). On the other hand, the name Sesleria elongata was accepted and widely used by many authors (e.g., Willdenow 1809, Candolle 1815, Roemer & Schultes 1817, Sprengel 1824 ‒1825, Link 1827 ‒1833, Reichenbach 1830 ‒1832). Other authors consider it as a variety of S. caerulea ( Linnaeus 1753: 72) Ardouino (1764: 18) (e.g., Bertoloni 1810, Pollini 1823), or S. argentea (e.g., Parlatore 1850). The majority of the afore mentioned authors listed also Cynosurus cylindricus in the synonymy of S. elongata whereas the Balbis’ species was almost never treated as an autonomous taxon [e.g., by Roemer & Schultes (1817) sub S. cylindrica ].

Based on information provided in taxonomic Literature Stafleau & Cowans (1985), the Scopoli’s phanerogams collection is deposited the following herbaria: LINN (a set received by Linnaeus), C (through M. Vahl), UPS (in the Thumberg’s herbarium), B (some material in the general herbarium, mainly destroyed), MPU (through Lapeyrouse), and PAV (in the Moretti’s herbarium, whose material was destroyed during World War II). Unfortunately, none specimen suitable to be considered as part of the original material for this name was traced in these herbaria. Accordingly, there are no specimens eligible for lectotypification, and a neotypification is required (Art. 9.7 of ICN). We selected a specimen preserved at HFLA that bears a plant recently collected at the locus classicus (M. Medea).

Concerning Sesleria elongata , there are two specimens at W (barcodes 0030271, and 1885-0002435; images available at http://herbarium.univie.ac.at/database/detail.php?ID=256564 and http://herbarium.univie.ac.at/database/ detail.php?ID=256563, respectively, bearing plants which were collected by N. T. Host (as inferable by the original labels occurring at the bottom-right side of the sheets). Although the morphological characteristics of these specimens match the diagnosis, they cannot be considered part of the original material of S. elongata since both sheets lack the date of collection. As a consequence, they could be post-1802 addition to the collection, and we prefer to avoid them for the lectotypification purposes. No further specimens eligible as lectoytpe were traced. The image of S. elongata provided by Host (1802: tab. 97), however, is certainly part of the original material. It is a particularly high-quality image, rich of details with even a magnification of the morphological features of the spikelet and the flower.

Owing to this image provided by Host matches the Host’s Sesleria elongata diagnosis, it is here designated as the lectotype for this name. In addition, we here designate the specimen W-1885-0002435 as epitype (Art. 9.8 of ICN, McNeill et al. 2012) in order to provide a true herbarium specimen to be used for a better identification (e.g. possible measurements or other kind of observations which cannot be drawn from an image). On the basis of the traditional knowledge in the taxa allied to Sesleria argentea ( Deyl 1946, Ujhelyi 1940, 1959), the morphological features of the lectotype of S. elongata (mainly the long and thin spike) and the site of collection itself, suggest the name S. elongata to be considered as heterotipic synonym of S. autumnalis . Schultz (1855: 318‒319) was the first who proposed the new combination S. autumnalis and listed S. elongata and Festuca argentea as synonyms. After Schultz (1855) the name S. autumnalis has progressively become established and now it is regularly used (see e.g., Ujhelyi 1940, 1959, Deyl 1978, Pignatti 1982, Valdés & Scholz 2009) whereas the name S. elongata was progressively forgotten.