On the taxonomic identity of five Senecio species (Compositae) described by Candolle on material collected by Haenke during the Malaspina Expedition
Author
Calvo, Joel
Author
Granda, Arturo
text
Candollea
2022
2022-09-14
77
2
145
158
http://dx.doi.org/10.15553/c2022v772a2
journal article
10.15553/c2022v772a2
2235-3658
7616556
3.
Senecio scrobicarioides
DC., Prodr.
6: 430. 1838.
Lectotypus
(designated here):
PERU
:
sine loco, s.d.,
Haenke
s.n.
(
PRC
[
PRC453170
] image!; isolecto-: G-DC [
G00487062
]!, PR-514867 image!;
P
[
P01816514
] image!)
.
Notes
. – CANDOLLE (1838) described
Senecio scrobicarioides
based on a Haenke collection whose provenance was uncertain as the locotype indication reveals: “in
Mexico
ad Real del Monte? aut fortè in Peruviâ legit cl. Haenke”, but he placed it in “ser. XV. Mexicani”. The species is currently widely accepted as Peruvian (SMITH, 1988; DILLON & HENSOLD, 1993; VISION & DILLON, 1996; BELTRÁN, 2018), which coincides with the fact that no works dealing with the Mexican flora record the species (VILLASEÑOR, 2016; PRUSKI, 2018).
The delimitation of
Senecio scrobicarioides
, however, remains ambiguous and this name has often been applied to specimens belonging to
S. bonplandianus
DC.
or
S. sulinicus
Cabrera
(CALVO, 2022a). These species are certainly very similar but differ in capitulum
type
(radiate in
S. scrobicarioides
vs. discoid in
S. bonplandianus
and
S. sulinicus
). They belong to a taxonomically complex assembly of taxa from the highAndes of
Peru
and
Bolivia
centered around
S. hohenackeri
Sch. Bip.
, which includes, among others,
S. crassilodix
Cuatrec.
,
S. octophyllus
Sch. Bip. ex Rusby
,
S. pavonii
(Wedd.)
Cuatrec.,
S. saxipunae
Cuatrec.
,
S. sublutescens
Cuatrec. Because
of the radiate capitula with short ray florets,
S. scrobicarioides
seems to be closer to
S. saxipunae
but if one rather focuses on the foliar morphology, it resembles to
S. bonplandianus
as aforementioned. F or the time being, the particular combination of characters of
S. scrobicarioides
leads us to treat it as a distinct species, however, a comprehensive revision of this group is essential to understanding the variability of each species. Our preliminary approach suggests that some names would fall in synonymy.
Concerning
the type material, we located duplicates of the
Haenke
collection at G-DC,
P
,
PR
, and
PRC
.
Although
there is a specimen kept at G-DC, we prefer to typify the name on the material in
Prague
as it was the main set studied by Candolle. The specimen at
PRC
is more complete than that at
PR
, and for this reason the former one is designated here as the
lectotype
.
It is noteworthy that we found at MA [MA-232356] a specimen attributed to Née that undoubtedly corresponds to the Peruvian species
Senecio scrobicarioides
. The specimen bears a handwritten label (unknown hand) with the following information: “Cineraria / ex Chalma in Nov. Hispania / Nee iter”. Chalma is a village located in the
Mexico State
not far from
Mexico City
known for the homonym XVII century sanctuary, which was visited by Née in
August 1791
(MADULID, 1989; MUÑOZ GARMENDIA, 1994). However, we believe that this is another case of mislabeling (see above). Indeed, it is striking the great similarity of this specimen with the
type
material of
S. scrobicarioides
(same size, habit, morphology, phenology, and preservation conditions). On this basis, it is feasible to think that all these specimens belonged to the same collection, that were shared between Haenke and Née, and later mislabeled in
Prague
and Madrid, respectively. However, these are conjectures that remain beyond the scope of the present study.