Commelina tuberosa von Linné (1753: 41)

Hassemer, Gustavo, 2020, Further cleaning of the name pool in the New World Commelina (Commelinaceae), and notes on the African C. aquatica, Phytotaxa 435 (2), pp. 101-132 : 116-122

1.11. Commelina tuberosa von Linné (1753: 41)

≡ Allosperma tuberosa (L.) Rafinesque (1838: 122)

Type: — MEXICO. S.d., Anonymous s.n. (lectotype [designated by Hunt 1993: 152] LINN-65.8!).

= Commelina dubia Redouté (1812 : t. 359), nom. illeg., non Commelina dubia von Jacquin (1768: 9 , t. 59)

Type: —(illustration) (lectotype, designated here) Plate 359 in Redouté (1812).

= Commelina pallida var. parviflora Clarke (1881: 151) (syn. nov.)

Type: — MEXICO. S.d., Anonymous s.n. (lectotype [designated here] BM-000938212! [ Figure 13 ]).

= Commelina quitensis var. mandonii Clarke (1881: 156) (syn. nov.)

Type: — BOLIVIA. La Paz: Larecaja Province , viciniis Sorata, 2600–2800 m, February–April 1860, G. Mandon 1238 (lectotype [designated here] K-000531986! [ Figure 14 ]; isolectotypes BM-013399192!, NY-1477269!, NY-1477270!, P-00752553!, P-00752554!, P-00752555!) .

= Commelina stricta Desfontaines (1829: 388) (syn. nov.)

≡ Commelina graminifolia var. stricta (Desf.) Clarke (1881: 152)

Type: — FRANCE. Cultivated at the Paris Botanic Garden, s.d., R. L. Desfontaines s.n. (lectotype [designated here] G-00489192! [ Figure 15 ]).

= Commelina undulata Loddiges (1830 : t. 1553), nom. illeg., non Commelina undulata Brown (1810: 270)

≡ Commelina loddigesii von Steudel (1840: 401) , nom. nov. pro Commelina undulata Lodd.

Type: —(illustration) (lectotype, designated here) Plate 1553 in Loddiges (1830).

Notes: —The protologue of C. dubia ( Redouté 1812: t. 359) provided no information on the provenance of the species (“Nous ignorons quelle est la patrie de la Comméline douteuse”), stating merely that the plants were donated by Jacques Philippe Martin Cels. I designate here as lectotype the only original element I could find, the illustrations in Plate 359 in Redouté (1812).

The protologue of C. pallida var. parviflora ( Clarke 1881: 151) provided the following information on the type of the species: “(sp. Pavon! ms. nec Link)” and “ Mexico (Pavon; Uhde n. 134)”. Because of Clarke’s mention to a species indication of “ C. parviflora ” annotated by Pavón on some herbarium sheet, I preferred to select a lectotype from among the specimens linked to Pavón. I was able to locate four specimens (BM-000938207, BM-000938208, BM-000938211 and BM-000938212), all of which kept at BM and bearing annotations “ Mexico. Pavon. ” and also references to C. pallida var. parviflora annotated by Clarke. It was not possible for me to determine whether those specimens belong to the same gathering or to different ones; I conservatively opt not to recognise them as duplicates. The plants on those four sheets belong to the same species, and appear to have been collected from a same population, judging by their relatively small size and leaves with characteristic undulate margins. However, only one of those specimens, BM-000938212 ( Figure 13 ), is annotated “ Commelina parviflora N E ”, which could perhaps could have been handwritten by Pavón himself. Considering the unequivocal reference made by Clarke (1881: 151) to this name (i.e. “ C. parviflora ”), I designate here this specimen as lectotype. The lectotype of C. pallida var. parviflora appears to be a rather atypical specimen of C. tuberosa , due to the undulate leave margins and relatively small size; however, it should be noted that C. tuberosa is extraordinarily variable in the vegetative parts (see Hassemer 2019).

The protologue of C. quitensis var. mandonii ( Clarke 1881: 156) provided the following information on the type of the species: “ Bolivia; in Andibus provinciae Larecaja, alt. 2600-2800 met. ( G. Mandon n. 1238 partim)”. I was able to locate the following seven specimens belonging to the gathering G. Mandon 1238: BM-013399192, K-000531986, NY-1477269, NY-1477270, P-00752553, P-00752554 and P-00752555. I designate here as lectotype the specimen K-000531986 ( Figure 14 ), because it is annotated “ Commelina Quitensis, Benth. var. Mandoni DC Monogr. 3 p. 156 CB Clarke Type of the var Mandoni (perhaps n sp.) ” in Clarke’s handwriting. Morphology of the lectotype indicates that C. quitensis var. mandonii should be considered a synonym of C. tuberosa .

The protologue of C. stricta ( Desfontaines 1829: 388) provided no information on the provenance of the species, but the title of the work implies that the species was cultivated at the Paris Botanic Garden. I was able to locate only one original specimen (G-00489192— Figure 15 ), which I designate here as lectotype. I should remark that Espejo-Serna & López-Ferrari (1995: 7) did not typify this name with their statement “ TIPO: México, in campis editis, C. Uhde 141 (G-DC)”, because they indicated as type a specimen originally cited by Clarke (1881: 152), which is not original material for the name. Morphology of the lectotype indicates that C. stricta should be considered a synonym of C. tuberosa .

The protologue of C. undulata ( Loddiges 1830: t. 1553) stated that the species is native to Mexico and that seeds of the species were received from Charles Stokes. I designate here as lectotype the only original element I could find, the illustrations in Plate 1553 in Loddiges (1830).

Figures

FIGURE 13. Lectotype of Commelina pallida var. parviflora (Anonymous s.n., BM-000938212). Copyright: Natural History Museum (London).Available online at: https://data.nhm.ac.uk/object/4d53a077-71b3-496a-b9a8-2d1b0bb8aa1e/1567036800000

FIGURE 14. Lectotype of Commelina quitensis var. mandonii (G. Mandon 1238, K-000531986). Copyright: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.Available online at: http://specimens.kew.org/herbarium/K000531986

FIGURE 15. Lectotype of Commelina stricta (R.L. Desfontaines s.n., G-00489192). Copyright: Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève.Available online at: https://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/chg/adetail.php?id=393407