Whittieria engelmannii ( Prantl 1883: 351 ) Li Bing Zhang & Liang Zhang ex Li Bing Zhang, Liang Zhang & X.Wan, 2022

Wan, Xia, Zhang, Liang & Zhang, Li-Bing, 2022, Validation and lectotypification of the fern combination Whittieria engelmannii (Ophioglossaceae), Phytotaxa 567 (2), pp. 205-206 : 205-206

Whittieria engelmannii ( Prantl 1883: 351) Li Bing Zhang & Liang Zhang ex Li Bing Zhang, Liang Zhang & X.Wan , comb. nov.

Basionym: Ophioglossum engelmannii Prantl (1883: 351) ≡ “ Whittieria engelmannii (Prantl) Li Bing Zhang & Liang Zhang ” (2022: 24), nom. inval.

Type:— U.S.A. Texas: Comanche Spring, New Braunfels , May 1849, F.J. Lindheimer 1281 (lectotype MO201251!, here designated, isolectotypes FI003993 !, K001057659 !, MEXU00085077 !, MEXU00000139 !, TEX00348044 !). Remaining syntypes: U.S.A. Texas: May 1849, F.J. Lindheimer 95 (MO251338!) . U.S.A. Texas: Comanche Spring , Bexar County, May 1849, F.J. Lindheimer 53 (GH00021725!, FI003992!) .

Notes:— In the protologue ( Prantl 1883), there were no specific gatherings cited but only “Nordamerika” ( North America ) was given. According to Stafleu & Cowan (1983: 379), K.A.E. Prantl’s herbarium and types are mainly at “HBG (esp. Pteridophyta)”. We searched the database of HBG (www.herbariumhamburgense.de), and only found three gatherings of Ophioglossum from Namibia and South Africa. In Tropicos (tropicos.org), four gathering are indicated as “T” (type) or “ST” (syntypes). We found three of the four gatherings in various herbaria (see above) in JSTOR (plants.jstor.org) but could not find Engelmann s.n collected before 1883. We here designated the one of the duplicates of F.J. Lindheimer 1281 at MO as the lectotype.

This species has three unique features: growing in basic soils, double venation (large areoles of the sterile blade subdivided into smaller areoles; Wagner & Wagner 1994), and 71 days of spore germination time ( Whittier 1981, Zhang & Zhang 2022).

Distribution:— United States, Mexico, and Central America.