Stellaria cupaniana (Jord. & Fourr.) Béguinot (1908: 552)

Mokni, Ridha El, Guacchio, Emanuele Del & Iamonico, Duilio, 2023, Further insights into the Stellaria media aggregate (Caryophyllaceae, Alsinoideae, Alsineae) in Africa: first reports of S. ruderalis in North Africa and S. cupaniana in Tunisia, with nomenclatural notes on the name Alsine cupaniana, Phytotaxa 584 (4), pp. 264-274 : 269-271

Stellaria cupaniana (Jord. & Fourr.) Béguinot (1908: 552)

≡ Alsine cupaniana Jordan & Fourreau (1868: 19) ≡ Stellaria media subsp. cupaniana (Jord. & Fourr.) Nyman (1878: 111) ≡ Stellaria neglecta var. cupaniana (Jord. & Fourr.) Bock (2012: 278) ≡ Stellaria neglecta subsp. cupaniana (Jord. & Fourr.) Gutermann (in Guttermann et al. 2014: 191)

Lectotype (here designated):— ITALY, Silicy. Du jardin de Palerme, 06 October 1859, [A.] Jordan s.n. ( LY0010173 !, image of the lectotype available at https://herbier2014.univ-lyon1.fr/photos/HD/7309_HD.jpg).

Description ( Fig. 3 ):—Annual creeping-ascending herb; stems up to 90 cm tall, rounded in cross section, fragile, hairy around with glandular hairs, sometimes reddish ( Fig. 3A ); leaves opposite, pubescent, the lower ones petiolate, ovate and mucronate ( Fig. 3B ), the upper leaves subsessile with undulated laminae margins ( Fig. 3A ); flowers grouped in more or less lax terminal cymes, densely glandular-pubescent; sepals 5, free, ovate to lanceolate, 4.5–7.0 mm long, green, glandular pubescent externally, somewhat concave, acute or obtuse; petals 5, white, deeply bifid, shorter than sepals, apex of lobes obtuse; stamens 5; styles usually 3, outwardly curved ( Fig. 3C ); fruit an ovoid, glabrous, dehiscent capsule with ca. 15 seeds; seeds 1.3–1.5 mm in diameter, brown to dark-brown, with conical tubercles less than 0.10 mm long ( Fig. 3D ).

Phenology:—Flowering and fruiting times February–April.

Chromosome number:—2n = 2x = 22 (Runemark in Kamari et al. 1996).

Habitat and distribution in Tunisia:— Stellaria cupaniana occurs in Tunisia in fields (Nabeul), wasteland (Nabeul), and along roadsides (Monastir) at 10–40 m a.s.l. Our findings represent the first record for the Tunisian flora ( Le Floc’h et al. 2010), and the second one for continental Africa ( African Plant Database 2023). Details of localities and populations follow:

¢ Bizerta-city (Bizerta governorate): Two populations that grow along roadsides together with S. pallida , Cerastium glomeratum , Juncus acutus L., Symphyotrichum squamatum , and Oxalis corniculata ;

¢ Rtiba (Nabeul governorate): At the edge of olive groves together with S. media subsp. media , S. ruderalis , S. pallida , Bellis annua , Cerastium glomeratum , Emex spinosa , Fumaria parviflora , Linaria heterophylla , L. triphylla , Malva parviflora , Oxalis pes-caprae , Poa infirma , and Senecio leucanthemifolius subsp. leucanthemifolius ;

¢ Monastir-city (Monastir governorate): Together with Convolvulus lineatus L., Fumaria agraria Lag. , Oxalis pes-caprae , Silene nocturna L., and Veronica polita Fr.

Typification of the name Alsine cupaniana :— Jordan & Fourreau (1868: 19) published Alsine cupaniana providing a description (“pedunculis sepalisque breviter denseque glanduloso-pilosis; capsula calycem vix sequante; corolla calycem paulo excedente, petalorum lobis latis fere contiguis; foliis late ovatis basi in petiolum abrupte contractis, etiam subcordatis; caulibus diffusis, e basi prostrata ascendentibus, subrubentibus” [English translation = “[ Alsine ] with peduncles shorter than sepals and densely glandular-hairy; capsule barely equaling the calyx; corolla a little longer than calyx, with petal lobes almost contiguous; leaves largely ovate, roughly contracted to the base into a petiole, or subcordate; stems spreading and prostrate at the base, decumbent, almost reddish”]); a morphological comparison with the Linnaean Alsine media L.; the provenance (“Hab. in ruderalibus Siciliae: circa Panormum” [English translation = “In ruderal environments of Sicily: near Palermo”]) was also given. Furthermore, the following synonyms were cited: “ A. major Cupani, Pamph. sicul. II, t. LVI” (from Cupani 1713), “ A. media var. c. grandiflora Guss. Syn. flor. sic. I., p. 494” (from Gussone 1842: 494), and “ A. grandiflora Ten. Fl. neap. prodr. p. 20” (from Tenore 1811: XX).

It should be noted that table no. LVI of Cupani (1713), cited by Jordan & Fourreau (1868: 19), illustrates “ Alsine media minor folio crispo ”. Probably, Jordan & Fourreau (1868: 19) mistakenly cited Gussone (1842: 464) here, by reporting the reference to Cupani’s name (“ Alsine major ”). Gussone (1842) wrote in synonymy “ Alsine major . Cup. l. c. ”, however, this does not refer to “ Cup. panph. 2. t. 56 ” cited for iconography, but to “ Cup. H. Cath. p. 6” ( Cupani 1696), already cited above for “ Alsine media ”, under Stellaria media var. media ( Gussone 1842: 493) . It is also to be noted that the combination “ A. media var. c. grandiflora Guss. Syn. flor. sic. I., p. 494” cited by Jordan & Fourreau (1868: 19) is to be referred to the combination Stellaria media var. grandiflora Guss. In any case, the combination Alsine media var. grandiflora Ten. had been already published in 1824 ( Tenore 1824).

A more important point is that Jordan & Fourreau (1868) disregarded the pre-existing name Alsine grandiflora , which is fully cited in synonymy and has the same rank as A. cupaniana (cf. Arts. 52.1–52.2 of ICN). In fact, Jordan & Fourreau (1868: 19) specified: “Cum Stellaria nemorum L. nunc comprehendatur in genere Alsine Bauhiniano , a cl. [clarissimo] Dumortier, in Florula Belgica, p. 109, ut jam monuit dom. [dominus] L. Piré, optime restituto, nomen A. grandiflora Ten. haud retinendum duximus” (English translation = “Since [even] Stellaria nemorum L. now is included in the well re-evaluated Bauhin’s genus Alsine by the very clear scholar Dumortier in his Florula belgica, as already Mr. L. Piré warned, then we have assumed to not adopt the name A. grandiflora Ten.”). Possibly, Jordan & Fourreau (1868) were not aware that the name Alsine grandiflora was an illegitimate, later homonym of A. grandiflora Crantz (1766) (Art. 53.1 of the ICN, Turland et al. 2018): probably, as it can be deduced from their taxonomic note, they disregarded the Tenorean name only because of the inclusion of S. nemorum in Alsine by Dumortier. Stellaria nemorum , in fact, shows flowers even larger than Alsine grandiflora (‘grandiflora’ = with large flowers). In any case, the citation of A. grandiflora does not make A. cupaniana itself as illegitimate, because Art. 52 of the ICN provides illegitimacy only if the cited name or its epithet “ought to have been adopted”, and the epithet grandiflora of the combinations by Tenore or Gussone cannot be adopted at all, since the epithet is unavailable in Alsine at species rank. Finally, we note that the discrepancy between the descriptions of A. cupaniana and A. grandiflora , noted by Jordan & Fourreau (1868), is justified by the fact that, after examination of original material at NAP, A. grandiflora is to be identified with S. neglecta (Art. 6.13 of the ICN, Turland et al. 2018).

We located a specimen at LY (barcode LY0010173) where Jordan’s herbarium is deposited (HUH-Index of Botanists 2013-onwards). This specimen, which was certainly examined by Jordan, bears three plants with flowers and capsules and the following original label (in Jordan’s handwriting): “ Alsine cupaniana J. & F. | Stellaria media latifolia | du jardin de Palerme | Jordan 59 | 6 oct 1859 ”. This specimen fully supports the current use of the name Stellaria cupaniana showing the stem hairy all-around and inflorescence densely glandular (especially on peduncles and dorsal surface of sepals), and sepals more than 5 mm long (see e.g., Chater & Heywood 1993, Pignatti 2017, Lepší et al. 2019).

LY0010173 is here designated as the lectotype of the name Alsine cupaniana .

Representative specimens examined:— TUNISIA. Bizerta: Bizerta-city , about 10 m a.s.l., 07 March 2021, El Mokni s.n. (Herb. El Mokni!); ibidem 11 April 2021, El Mokni s.n. (Herb. El Mokni!) ; Monastir: Monastir-city , about 12 m a.s.l., 06 April 2021, El Mokni s.n. (Herb. El Mokni!) ; Nabeul: Rtiba , about 39 m a.s.l., 22 March 2021, El Mokni s.n. (Herb. El Mokni!) .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Stellaria cupaniana in Tunisia. A. Plant habit in one of its natural habitats. B. Summital stems. C. Inflorescence. D. Seed form and shape, scale bar: 1 mm. Photographs by R. El Mokni in Nabeul region (Cap-Bon of Tunisia), 22 March 2021.