Rindera bungei (Boiss.) Gürke

Ranjbar, Massoud & Khalvati, Sina, 2022, Nomenclatural notes on Solenanthus minimus Brand (Boraginaceae), Adansonia (3) 44 (17), pp. 175-181 : 176

Rindera bungei (Boiss.) Gürke

Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, Engler & Prantl 4 (3a): 106 ( Gürke 1893) ( Fig. 2 ). — Bilegnum bungei (Boiss.) Brand , Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis 13: 550 ( Brand 1915). — Basionym: Mattia bungei Boiss. , Flora Orientalis 4 (1): 274 ( Boissier 1875).

— Typus: Iran. Prov. Semnan, Shahroud, Deh Molla , 1720 m, [Persiae bor.-orientalis prope Schahrud, Deh Mallah], 27.V.1858, Bunge s.n. (holo-, G-BOIS [ G00773940 ] ; iso-, G-BOIS [ G00773941 ], K [ K000895812 ]!, LE [ LE0107898 ]!, P [ P04083563 , P04083564 ]!) .

Solenanthus minimus Brand , Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis 13: 547 ( Brand 1915), syn. nov. ( Figs 1 ; 2 ). — Cynoglossum minimum (Brand) Greuter & Stier , Biodiversity Data Journal 3 (e4831): 19 ( Hilger et al. 2015), syn. nov. — Typus: Iran. Prov. Semnan, Shahroud, [Persia borealis, Shahrud], Christoph in the herb. Ascherson ( B †), (neo-, Semnan, Shahroud , Abshar Park , 1.VI.2018, Ranjbar & Khalvati 41148, BASU, here designated) ( Fig. 3 ) .

HABITAT. — Dry mountain pastures, rocky slopes, on limestone, 1400-2700 m.

DISTRIBUTION. — North Iran: Semnan, Shahroud ( Brand 1915) ( Fig. 4 ).

OTHER SPECIMENS EXAMINED. — Iran. Prov. North Khorasan, Esfarayen, Shah Jahan Mtn., 1400-2500 m, Mozaffarian 48625 ( TARI) ; Prov. Khorasan-e Razavi, Mashhad, Akhlamad village, 1820 m, Shad & Vafayi 1080 ( FUMH) ; Prov. Semnan, 35 km north of Damghan , Toyeh, 2000 m, Asadi & Wendelbo 29487 ( TARI) ( Fig. 4 ) .

DESCRIPTION

Perennial herb with a blackish woody stock producing few to several flowering and non-flowering shoots. Rosette leaves numerous, 30-60 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, with long attenuated leaf bases, linear-lanceolate, acute to subacute, appressed grey to silvery tomentose on both sides. Flowering stem 5-10 cm long, erect, sometimes flexuous, simple, sulcate, tomentose. Cauline leaves mostly reduced, usually twisted, 0.5-1.5 × 0.2-0.3 mm; lower cauline leaves similar to rosette leaves, highly reduced; upper cauline leaves linear-lanceolate to linear, sessile. Inflorescence dense, 10-20 flowered, subumbellate, consisting of 3-7 scorpioid, ebracteate cymes each with 6-12 flowers. Peduncles and pedicels straightening and elongating considerably in fruit, tomentose; pedicels to 0.5 cm long at anthesis, to 1-1.5 cm long at fruiting; peduncles to 2 cm long at anthesis, to 4 cm long at fruiting. Calyx silvery to grey densely tomentose, divided to base into narrowly lanceolate, acute lobes 3-5 × 0.5-1 mm long in flower, unequal in width, slightly accrescent, and often deflexed in fruit. Corolla 5-6 mm long, regular, light pinkish-purple with darker striation; tube with distinct vaginations at the middle of the corolla, c. 1.5 mm long below the base of the lobes; faucal appendages broadly subquadrate or triangulartrapezoidal, inserted in the lower third of tube; lobes erect, ovate-elliptic, 0.5-1 × 0.5-1 mm, rounded at apex. Stamens inserted in the lower third of tube; filaments 8-10 mm long, anthers 0.3-0.5 mm, distinctly exserted. Style distinctly exserted from corolla, nearly equal to the stamens, c. 8-9 mm long, persistent; stigma minute, capitate. Nutlets suborbicular, 8-12 mm long in diam., smooth, with a broad margin, including the double wing, without glochids; wing obviously muricate-dentate in outline and curved.

DISCUSSION

The type of Solenanthus minimus was not explicitly cited by Riedl (1967) in Flora Iranica and the original material could not be seen by him. Khatamsaz confirmed that the specimen was not seen in the “ Flora of Iran ” and considered S. minimus as a doubtful species ( Khatamsaz 2002). Most of Christoph’s original material housed in Berlin (B) was lost during the Second World War (https://www.bgbm.org, Kuo et al. 2018), although some sheets survived in other European herbaria. However, we could not find Christoph’s collection neither at B nor in herbaria with important collections used by Paul Ascherson (pers. comm. Dr R. Vogt, Curator of Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum B). To satisfactorily clarify this situation, the establishment of a neotype for S. minimus is required according to the rules indicated in the ICN ( Turland et al. 2018). During our expedition, the type locality in Iran corresponding to Solenanthus was found, which included the localities of herbarium specimens given below under S. minimus . Then, we selected one of our collections as a neotype for the S. minimus , because it matches well with the characters and comes from the type locality with a type label provided at BASU ( Fig. 1 ). Similarity of S. minimus Brand with Rindera species was expressed by Brand (1915) in a somewhat confusing way:“Im Habitus zeigt die Pflanze eine täuschende Ähnlichkeit mit Rindera graeca ”. In terms of habit, the species seems so to be very deceptive to Rindera graeca (A.DC.) Boiss. & Heldr. ( Boissier 1846) , which is moreover considered as an endemic Balkan species and does not occur in Iran. According to the original description of R. bungei and R. graeca , they have linear-lanceolate leaves, corolla with ovate lobes and the filaments are twice the length of the corolla ( Fig. 3 ). Also, these features are available in the Brand’s description. It seems that Brand made this misdiagnosis because not having the most relevant diagnostic features of Rindera / Bilegnum such as the nutlets: “Nuculae ignotae” or he only considered the size of the stamens (corolla longe excedentia) as the base of generic identification. No further comment should be made due to the lack of type or original material. Therefore, S. minimus should be treated as a synonym of R. bungei .

Figures

FIG. 2. — Rindera bungei (Boiss.) Gürke: A, whole plant; B, nutlets; C, calyx; D, open corolla. Scale bar: A, 1 cm; B, 3 mm; C, D, 2 mm. Drawnings: S. Khalvati.

FIG. 1. — Rindera bungei (Boiss.) Gürke (Ranjbar & Khalvati 41148): A, whole plant; B, leaf abaxial surface; C, leaf adaxial surface; D, infrutescence; E, habit. Scale bars: A, 1 cm; B, C, 3 mm; D, 5 mm; E, 2 cm. Photos: M. Ranjbar.

FIG. 3. — Neotype of Solenanthus minimus Brand (Ranjbar & Khalvati 41148, BASU).

FIG. 4. — Distribution map of Rindera bungei (Boiss.) Gürke in Iran. The star in the circle indicates the type locality of Rindera bungei and Solenanthus minimus Brand (new synonym of Rindera bungei).