Mimophytum alienum (A.Gray ex Hemsley) R.R.Mill ex Holstein & Weigend, 2016

Holstein, Norbert, Chacón, Juliana, Otero, Ana, Jiménez-Mejías, Pedro & Weigend, Maximilian, 2016, Towards a monophyletic Omphalodes-or an expansion of North American Mimophytum, Phytotaxa 288 (2), pp. 131-144 : 140

2. Mimophytum alienum (A.Gray ex Hemsley) R.R.Mill ex Holstein & Weigend comb. nov.

Basionym: Omphalodes aliena A.Gray ex Hemsl., Biol. cent.-amer., Bot. 2 (1882: 377).

Holotype:— MEXICO. Nuevo León: Monterrey, February 1880, E. Palmer 893 ( K000478232 !+ K000644337 !, isotypes F! [ V0093471 F], GH00219330 !, NDG42382 !, NY00335602 !, P03512916 !, PH00019771!, US 00110899!, US00866736!, WU!, YU002008 !).

Note: Nesom (1988, 2013) cites A. Gray as the author, but we believe this to be erroneous. Hemsley based the name Omphalodes aliena on Gray´s annotation of the sheet as “ A. Gr. MSS. in hb. Kew”, but Gray did not provide the diagnosis nor did he author the publication. Therefore, authorship is assigned to Hemsley (Art. 46.8.; McNeill et al. 2012). Hemsley cited a Palmer 873 specimen. This was clearly erroneous and is here corrected to 893 (Art. 9.2., McNeill et al. 2012), because Palmer 873 ( K 000478556) is 1) from a different locality—Parras State—and 2) Gray annotated Palmer 893, not 873, as Omphalodes aliena . Gray (1884), Johnston (1924), and Nesom (1988, 2013) cited the correct type, but did not clarify the erroneous type citation by Hemsley.

The sheet in Kew herbarium bears two barcodes for the two plants. However, there is no reason to assume that the two plants correspond to separate collections: The protologue provides characters of the flower (only visible on the upper plant) and the nutlets (only visible on the lower plant). There is one original label with an annotation that it was received by Kew in June 1881. The label bears an unpublished Watson name “ Leptocarya nudiflora ” and an updated name Omphalodes aliena “A.Gray ” [ex Hemsley]. The other “label” is a slip of ruled paper—without date of receipt and without Watson’s name—but with an undated note by Asa Gray. However, there is no indication that Gray did not see the original label (seemingly belonging to the upper plant), on the contrary. Nesom (1988) reports a hand-written note from Kew by Gray dated July 1881, in which he asks Watson to withhold the publication of his “ Leptocarya ”. Therefore, Gray must have seen the upper label as well as the upper plant. Nesom (2013) called the specimen with the Gray note “ holotype ” and distinguished the other one as isotype, but both are in fact part of the holotype specimen.

The type sheet was annotated as “ Mimophytum aliena ” in 2005 by R. R. Mill, but the name has not been published.