Aconitum naviculare (Brühl) Stapf, Ann. Roy Bot. Gard

Agnihotri, Priyanka, Husain, Danish & Husain, Tariq, 2015, Lectotypification of the name Aconitum naviculare (Ranunculaceae), Phytotaxa 218 (2), pp. 195-196 : 195

Aconitum naviculare (Brühl) Stapf, Ann. Roy Bot. Gard (Calcutta) 10: 154, 155, t. 101 (1905).

Type:—Kung-met, Chumbi, 3.8.1884, Dr. King’s Collector 307 K (lectotype [scan seen], designated here; K (barcode K 000692294); isolectotypes: CAL ( CAL 0000004032, K ( K 000692295). ≡ Aconitum ferox Wall. ex Ser. var. navicularis Brühl in Brühl & King, Ann. Roy Bot. Gard (Calcutta) 5(2): 111, t. 111, f. 2, 14 (1895). Aconitum creagromorphum Lauener , Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 25: 12 (1963). Aconitum naviculare var. leiocarpum Tamura, Acta Phyt. Geobot. 23: 28 (1968). Aconitum bhutanicum Kadota , in Ohba & Malla, Himalayan Pl. 1 (Univ. Mus. Univ. Tokyo Bull., 31) 211 (1988). Fig.1 .

Brühl in Brühl & King (1896), while describing Aconitum ferox Wall. ex Ser. var. navicularis cited ‘Chumbi: near Kung-met’, in the caption to Plate 111, as the type locality for this variety. He also illustrated two figures of floral parts (Plate 111, figs. 2, 14) of this variety but never mentioned the collector’s name and number for the vouchers in his protologue. Stapf (1905) published a new combination, A. naviculare , citing Brühl’s var. navicularis as the basionym, on the basis of several specimens from Sikkim ( India) and from ‘Chumbi: near Kung-met’, the locality mentioned by Brühl (1896) in his protologue. Stapf’s A. naviculare , although indicated in the protologue as ‘ sp. nov. ’, is nothing but a stat. nov. of the existing var. navicularis , thus, only vouchers relating to Brühl’s var. navicularis are taken into consideration for the purpose of typifying this taxon (Arts. 7.3, 9.12, ICN, McNeill et al., 2012). Stapf mentioned two vouchers from Kung-met, Chumbi having different collection numbers 306 and 307, deposited in CAL and K. We could find three specimens of A. naviculare conserved in K and CAL, collected on 3.8.1884 by Dr. King’s Collector from Kung-met, Chumbi all having same collection no. 307, whereas specimen number 306 could not be traced at any herbarium likely to hold original material studies by Brühl, therefore, specimen number 307 is the only available material that can be selected as the lectotype of A. naviculare .

In summary, there are three vouchers of specimen number 307, two in K and one in CAL, out of two specimens in K, one voucher with a single specimen and accession number K 000692294 is annotated as A. ferox var. navicularis Brühl and is also annotated by Stapf indicating that this specimen could have been studied by both Brühl and Stapf and clearly corresponds to the current species concept of A. naviculare (stem glabrescent below, leaves small, deeply 3 partite, inflorescence few flowered, sepals reddish blue, helmet navicular), thus, this specimen ( Figure 1 ) is chosen as the lectotype of A. naviculare and the other documented original material at K with Accession number K 000692295 and at CAL with accession number CAL 0000004032 are the isolectotypes (Art. 9.2, ICN, McNeill et al., 2012).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Lectotype of Aconitum naviculare (Brühl) Stapf, Dr. King’s Collector, 307 (K) See http://specimens.kew.org/herbarium/ K000692294