Cicer minutum

Krivenko, Denis & Tatanov, Ivan, 2021, Lectotypification of three names in Cicer (Fabaceae), Phytotaxa 512 (2), pp. 117-124 : 121-122

Typification of Cicer minutum

Cicer minutum was described by Boissier and the German missionary, physician and botanist Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker (1798–1874) in Boissier’s series Diagnoses plantarum orientalium novarum ( Boissier 1849: 130). It was based on plants collected by the Silesian botanist Carl Georg Theodor Kotschy (1813–1866) during his expedition to the Alborz (also Alburz, Elburz or Elborz) mountains undertaken in 1843 ( Kotschy 1861). In the protologue is reported the number 542 of the Kotschy’s collection, which often has up to one hundred duplicates ( Lack 2020).

The Kotschy’s collections were bought by Hohenacker. After completing his Transcaucasia mission, Hohenacker earned his living by selling exsiccatae of other collectors. Boissier received a set of duplicates by Hohenacker and subsequently communicated him his determinations. He also validated many new names based on Kotschy’s specimens ( Lack 2020). After that, the Kotschy’s collections were divided into sets and distributed to a large number of herbaria by Hohenacker ( Edmondson & Lack 2006).

Linczevski (1948), who accepted C. minutum , was the first to indicate that the type of this species is kept in G and the cotype (= isotype) in LE (“Described from Elburz. Type in Geneva, cotype in Leningrad ”), though he did not examine nor annotate the specimens in G. In the combined Geneva herbaria there are four duplicates of the original collection of C. minutum , one specimen in G-BOIS and three specimens in G. These specimens are syntypes of C. minutum ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 9.6). Consequently, Linczevski’s citation of the type of C. minutum in G should be considered as the first-step lectotypification of this name ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 9.17, Ex. 14).

Van der Meissen (1972, 1979), who synonymized C. minutum with C. incisum (Willd.) K.Malý in Ascherson & Graebner (1909: 900), indicated that he examined the type specimens of C. minutum in BM, G, K, M, OXF, P, WAG, but he did not indicate in which of the listed herbaria the type of this name was stored. Later, van der Maesen (1987) indicated that the “ holotype ” is kept in P and isotypes in BM, G, K, M, OXF, W, WAG. In the Paris herbarium there are five duplicates of the original collection of C. minutum , with specimens P00708287 and P00708289 annotated by van der Maesen as “type”. However, none of the specimens in P can be a holotype, because at least two specimens were annotated by Boissier as “ Cicer minutum B. et H.” before the date of the publication of this name: specimen G00777329 in his own collection G-BOIS and specimen P00708287 in P (on a paper strip glued to the handwritten label).