taxonID	type	description	language	source
957887FA756BFFFDFF4606A58705F900.taxon	description	(Figs 1 - 7)	en	Pasta, Salvatore, Rosa, Alfonso La, Scafidi, Filippo (2026): Typification of the name Scabiosa limonifolia Vahl (Dipsacaceae). Adansonia (3) 48 (16): 171-183, DOI: 10.5252/adansonia2026v48a16
957887FA756BFFFDFF4606A58705F900.taxon	materials_examined	TYPE SPECIMENS. — Italy • Sicily; Scabiosa cophanensis fruticans, coerulea, Laureolae fol. crasso, rotundo, lucido, molli, subtùs incano H. Cathol. 196 / R. Hist. 3. 238 n ° 53 ” / Herbier de Vaillant; s. d., F. Cupani, s. n; lectotype: P [P 02714969]!, here designated (Fig. 6); isolectotype: OXF [Herb. Sher- 0558!] (Fig. 7).	en	Pasta, Salvatore, Rosa, Alfonso La, Scafidi, Filippo (2026): Typification of the name Scabiosa limonifolia Vahl (Dipsacaceae). Adansonia (3) 48 (16): 171-183, DOI: 10.5252/adansonia2026v48a16
957887FA756BFFFDFF4606A58705F900.taxon	discussion	RESULTS VAHL’S PROTOLOGUE AND THE EARLIER SYNONYMS Around 1783, Vahl began compiling an archive and he continued until his death in 1804 (J. Soelberg, Herbarium of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, pers. comm.). All of the c. 26 000 handwritten and unpublished cards of this archive, kept in C, have been digitised. Thanks to the support of the herbarium staff, we could access pages 30 - 31 of this archive (see Appendix 1), where the epithet Scabiosa limonifolia appears for the first time. These pages contain exactly the same information reported in the printed protologue (Vahl 1791), i. e. a short diagnosis “ SCABIOSA corollulis quinquefidis, foliis cuneiformibus integerrimis, subtus rugosis incanis ”, with a complete and extensive morphological description of the plant in Latin (Fig. 4). As for the locality, Vahl (1791) reports “ Habitat in Sicilia ”. The protologue also contains a mention of two polynomials that should be considered as earlier synonyms, i. e. “ Scabiosa cophanensis, fruticans, Laureolae folio, crasso, rotundo, lucido, molli, subtus incano ”, cited from Hortus Catholicus (Cupani 1696: 196) and Historia Plantarum (Ray 1704: 238 n ° 53), and “ Scabiosa sicula, fruticans, laureolae folio subtus incano ”, cited from Institutiones Rei Herbariae (Tournefort 1700: 465). A more accurate check on the original sources mentioned by Vahl pointed out some slight differences both in the text of the first description by Cupani (1696), who wrote: “ Scabiosa Cophanensis fruticans, coerulea, Laureolae folio crasso rotu (n) do, lucido, molli, subtùs incano ”, and in the one by Ray (1704), who added the following description: “ Radice nititur crassa, in plura capita divisa, è quorum unoquoque exeunt folia plurima, in orbem sparsa, ut in Bellide minori vulg. [are] ad Laureolae accedentia, sed pro magnitudine breviora, extremitate subrotunda, spissa, subtus incana. Ex horum centro exsurgit caulis pedalis, striatus, ad longa intervalla foliis binis adversis, è quorum sinubus ramuli oriuntur, vestitus. In summo caule & ramulis flores sedent nudi & ferè globosi, ut in Succisa. Haec ex sicca Sherardina. ” Based on what is noted in the unpublished manuscript archive kept in Copenhagen and in the printed protologue of Vahl, we can state that he never gave reference to a specific specimen, instead he reported information taken from three literature references, i. e. Cupani (1696), Tournefort (1700) and Ray (1704). THE CUPANI’S DRAWING Both the most influential botanists who studied the Sicilian vascular flora in the 19 th century, i. e. Gussone (1827; 1843) and Lojacono-Pojero (1903) mention a drawing referring to Scabiosa limonifolia published on plate 247 of the second volume of Cupani’s Panphyton Siculum. The tormented publishing history of this work, usually cited as Cupani (1713), has been the focus of scientific interest in the European botanical community for centuries. In fact, today only four copies of this book are known to occur in Sicily, and they differ one from another for the number and the numbering of the illustrated plates they contain. Fig. 5 reproduces a detail of the table 456 of the second volume from Pastena et al. (2003), corresponding to the plate 247 of the second volume of the copy “ A ” kept in the Central Library of the Sicilian Region in Palermo, once kept in the Jesuit Library of Palermo and with no doubt the same one consulted by Gussone and Lojacono-Pojero. When describing Scabiosa limonifolia Vahl (1791) probably did not mention the Cupani’s drawing because he was unaware of the existence of the Panphyton or he could not consult it. As a consequence, this drawing could not be used for typification purposes. THE HERBARIUM SPECIMENS A virtual search enabled us to find two specimens sent by Cupani to two different European herbaria, both suitable for typification purposes. The first one was kept in Herbarium of Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris (P), the second is stored in William Sherard’s Herbarium, kept in Oxford (OXF). The specimen [P 02714969] from Paris (Fig. 6) has three labels. On the lower label on the left-hand side, written by Sherard (as suggested by S. Harris and confirmed by B. Offroy, who kindly checked the handwritten catalogue of the Herbier Vaillant), we read: “ Scabiosa cophanensis fruticans, coerulea, Laureolae fol. crasso, rotundo, lucido, molli, subtùs incano H. Cathol. 196 / R. [ay] Hist. [vol.] 3 [p]. 238 n ° 53 ” / Herbier de Vaillant [note added later, possibly by Desfontaines, C. Aupic, pers. comm.]. On the upper label on the left-hand side, written by someone who we were not able to identify, we read: “ Scabiosa Cophanensis fruticans, coerulea, Laureolae, meliùs Globulariae, fol: [io] crasso / Hor: [tus] Cat: [holicus] 196 / entr. [written by John Ray, this annotation is rather common on the specimens of the Sherard’s herbarium that were personally seen by Ray when he was writing the third volume of his Historia; S. Harris, pers. comm.] / herbier de Vaillant ” [note added later, possibly by Desfontaines, C. Aupic, pers. comm.]. On the third label we read: “ Scabiosa limonifolia Vahl Symb. – Willd. / Desfontaines scripsit [note added later by Édouard Spach, C. Aupic, pers. comm.] ”. On the label of the specimen of OXF [Sher- 0558] (Fig. 7), written by Sherard [as confirmed by S. Harris, pers. comm.], we read: “ Scabiosa Cophanensis fruticans, coerulea, Laureolae fol. crasso, rotundo, lucido, molli, subtùs incano H. Cathol. 196 / R. [ay] Hist. [vol.] 3 [p]. 238 n ° 53 / Scabiosa sicula, fruticans laureolae folio subtùs incano I. R. H. 465 [= Tournefort’s Institutiones Rei Herbariae p. 465] / Scabiosa Succisa globulariae folio, subtùs incano / Comm. Ac. R. Sc. [= Communicavit Academia Regia Scientiarum? = communicated by the Royal Academy of Sciences?] ann. 1722 p. 175 N ° 5 / 556 [number written with red ink, added in the lower right corner of the sheet by William Baxter, S. Harris, pers. comm.] ”. No other suitable specimens of Scabiosa limonifolia were found in any of the other European herbaria that Pulvirenti et al. (2015 b) claim contain specimens from Cupani, i. e. his Hortus Siccus kept in Catania (CAT; https: // www. ortobotanicocatania. it / wp-content / uploads / 2022 / erbari / erbario _ it / cupani / index. html), the herbaria of John Ray, George Clifford, Hans Sloane and Paul Hermann in the Natural History Museum of London (BM), those of Georg Andreas Helwing at the University of Warsaw (WA) (K. Spalik and M. Graniszewska, pers. comm.), of Antonius Münchenberg at the Swedish Museum of Natural History of Stockholm (S) (J. Lundberg, pers. comm.), of Jacob Bobart the Younger (Oxford University Library, OXF) (S. Harris, pers. comm.), of the members of the Salvador family (University of Barcelona, BCN) (J. M. Camarasa and N. Ibáñez, pers. comm.).	en	Pasta, Salvatore, Rosa, Alfonso La, Scafidi, Filippo (2026): Typification of the name Scabiosa limonifolia Vahl (Dipsacaceae). Adansonia (3) 48 (16): 171-183, DOI: 10.5252/adansonia2026v48a16
