Erodium soluntinum Todaro (1869: 36)

Domina, Gianniantonio, Scafidi, Filippo & Gargano, Maria Letizia, 2017, Typification of the name Erodium soluntinum Tod. (Geraniaceae) and its taxonomic implications, Phytotaxa 329 (3), pp. 291-292 : 291

Erodium soluntinum Todaro (1869: 36)

Type (lectotype, here designated):— ITALY. Sicily: Pianure marnose sotto Catalfano, fondo Parisi, April 1866, A. Todaro s.n. ( PAL 75359!, image of the lectotype is available at http://147.163.105.223/zoomify/view_img.asp?ic=75359).

Note:—In the Herbaria BM, P, PAL, FI are housed duplicates of a specimen bearing the printed label: “Todaro Flora Sicula Exiccata / Erodium soluntinum Tod. enum fl. sic. ined. et ind. sem. hort. bot. pan. ann. 1868, p. 36. / In collibus arenosis - Catalfano / Aprili / n 832. Legit Todaro”. Unfortunately these specimens do not show any collection date, and cannot be considered as original material. On the other hand, a complete, well conserved specimen, which can be safely considered as original material (Art. 8.2 of the ICN, McNeill et al. 2012), and completely agrees with the protologue, is housed at PAL. We selected it as the lectotype.

Taxonomic implications:—The leaves in Erodium soluntinum are never really laciniate but they are ranging from entire to deeply lobed, and mericarps lack a furrow beneath pits. These features can be observed in the lectoype and in other, either dried or living, topotypical materials. Accordingly, E. soluntinum clearly falls within the variability of E. laciniatum ( Cavanilles 1787: 228) Willdenow (1800: 633) . The same consideration was done by some authors ( Battandier 1888, Knuth 1912). Todaro himself compared his new species with E. laciniatum , in the protologue. Some further confusion might occur with the polymorphic Erodium malacoides ( Linnaeus 1753: 680) L’Héritier (1789: 415) , that shows similar vegetative morphology and also occurs in the locus classicus of E. soluntinum .

Guittoneau (1972) reported that E. malacoides and E. laciniatum do not form hybrids . However, we observed a continuous morphological variation of morphological vegetative and reproductive characters in E. laciniatum along the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily. This suggests the need of further taxonomic studies within this species complex. At the present state of knowledge, for the reasons explained above, E. soluntinum has to be considered a heterotypic synonym of E. laciniatum .