Anthyllis vulneraria

Iamonico, Duilio, Domina, Gianniantonio, Guarino, Riccardo & Guacchio, Emanuele Del, 2021, Nomenclatural notes on Fabaceae described from Sicily, Phytotaxa 490 (2), pp. 211-219 : 213

Vulneraria heterophylla var. busambarensis

Vulneraria heterophylla var. busambarensis Lojacono-Pojero (1891: 47) was published through a diagnosis and citing in synonymy the name “ A. [ Anthyllis ] vulneraria [var.] albiflora Guss. ” (see the preceeding paragraph). Since Lojacono-Pojero (1891: 47) listed, as a synonym, a legitimate name at the same rank (i.e. the Gussone’s name), V. heterophylla var. busambarensis is superfluous and illegitimate according to the Art. 52.2 of ICN. A valid name with the same epithet, but at different rank, was published by Pignatti (1977) (Art. 58.1 of ICN), with a reference to the protologue of Lojacono-Pojero (1891) (intended by Pignatti as the basionym). As Pignatti (1977) did not indicate a type or provide a Latin diagnosis, his combination is necessarily to be regarded as an implicit replacement name for the illegitimate V. heterophylla var. busambarensis , which could have been validated only by the direct reference to the Lojacono-Pojero’s name (Arts. 6.12, 58.1 of ICN).

Lojacono-Pojero (1891) reported also “ Pl. Sic. rar. Cent. IV 377 ”, which is a reference to his collection for sale Plantae siculae rariores ( Aghababyan et al. 2012, Domina et al. 2014), i.e., a clear indication of syntypes (Art. 9.6 of ICN). Therefore, according to Art. 7.5, Lojacono-Pojero’s illegitimate combination cannot be typified by the type of the Gussone’s name. The lectotype is a specimen at BM (barcode BM000751286, image available at https://data. nhm.ac.uk/object/b6d9292d-29b0-4695-8558-57d50ab89e82/1601856000000), first designated by Akeroyd (1988: 37). The type proposed by Brullo et al. (2011) refers to a specimen at FI (barcode FI018931!), which is, at most, a syntype. It effectively belongs to the fourth century of Plantae Siculae rariores and was labelled by Lojacono-Pojero as Vulneraria heterophylla var. busambarensis , but the progressive number is lacking. In any case, it was collected on June 1887, and therefore it does not belong to the same collection of the specimen BM000751286 (collected on April 1888, as well as the isolectotype at G). The pertinent taxon differs from all the other members of the Anthyllis vulneraria group by the following combination of features: stem hairy with patent hairs, tomentose when young, cauline leaves with more or less equal segments, linear bracts up to 20 mm long, calyx slightly inflated, densely hairy, 4–5 mm in diameter, flowers pale yellow to whitish. Since the nomenclatural changes proposed by Pignatti (1982: 754), Pignatti & Guarino in Pignatti (2018: 620), and Pignatti (2019: 108) were not validly published (Arts. 41.5, 41.6, and 41.8 of ICN), a new combination at species rank is here proposed. The Gussone’s name Vulneraria heterophylla var. albiflora can be used as basionym for the new combination, as it is the first name published to indicate the taxon of our interest.

Anthyllis albiflora ( Gussone 1843 –1844. [April 1843 – June 1844]: 265) Iamonico, Domina, Guarino & Del Guacchio, comb. nov. Bas.: Anthyllis heterophylla var. albiflora Guss., Fl. Sicul. Syn. 2: 265. 1843–1844. [April 1843 – June 1844].

Type (lectotype, designated here):— ITALY. Sicily, In apricis montosis, Gussone s.n. (NAP!, Fig. 1 ) .

= A. vulneraria Linnaeus (1753: 719) subsp. busambarensis Pignatti (1977: 46) , nom. nov. pro Vulneraria heterophylla Moench (1794: 146) var. busambarensis Lojacono-Pojero (1891: 47) , nom. illeg. (Art. 52.2) ≡ A. vulneraria var. busambarensis (Pignatti) Akeroyd (1988: 37) , nom. illeg. (art. 58.1, Note 1)

Type (lectotype designated by Akeroyd (1988: 37):— ITALY. Sicily, in rupibus calcareis Busambris alla parte della Valle di San Giorgio, [?] Ciacco di Bifarera , April 1887, Lojacono-Pojero 376 (BM000751286); isolectotype G00421033!.

− “ Anthyllis busambarensis Pignatti & Guarino in Pignatti (2018: 620) ”, comb. inval. (Arts. 41.5, 41.6, and 41.8 of ICN).

− “ Anthyllis busambarensis Pignatti (2019: 108) ”, comb. inval. (Arts. 41.5, 41.6, and 41.8 of ICN).

− Anthyllis vulneraria var. hispida sensu Strobl (1887: 531) , non Willkomm in Willkomm & Lange (1877: 333) (fide Pignatti 1977).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Lectotype of the name Anthyllis vulneraria var. albiflora (NAP!, by permission of the Director).