Commelina communis von Linné (1753: 40–41)

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 : 104

1.3. Commelina communis von Linné (1753: 40–41)

Type: — UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. S.d., Anonymous s.n. (lectotype [designated by Faden & Reveal in Jarvis et al. 1993: 36] LINN-65.1!).

= Commelina polygama Roth (1790: 14–15)

Type: — GERMANY. S.d., Anonymous s.n. (neotype [designated here] B barcode BW01047010! [ Figure 2 ]).

Notes: —The protologue of C. polygama ( Roth 1790: 14–15) provided the following information about the provenance of the species: “Anno 1786 in Victili quodam cum aliis plantis sponte mihi enata est, patriam itaque indicare nequeo. Tanquam spontanea planta in horto meo & inter horti rejectamenta quotannis provenit”. No original specimens could be located, and no illustrations were cited in the protologue. The morphological information provided in the protologue is enough to link the name to the currently accepted species C. communis , which is confirmed in the literature ( Pennell 1938). There is one folder kept at B (barcode BW01047000) with three specimens identified as C. polygama , probably annotated by Carl Ludwig Willdenow or Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal. Two of these specimens (barcodes BW01047010 and BW01047020) are C. communis , while the other one (barcode BW01047030) is C. erecta . I designate the specimen B barcode BW01047010 ( Figure 2 ) as neotype; this is the best and most complete among the two specimens of C. communis identified as C. polygama at B. This specimen agrees with Roth’s description, and it possibly derived from living plants from Bremen that based the description of C. polygama .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Neotype of Commelina polygama (Anonymous s.n., B barcode BW01047010).Copyright:Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem. Available online at: http://herbarium.bgbm.org/object/BW01047010