Sisymbrium damascenum Boiss., Diagn. Pl.

AL-Shehbaz, Ihsan A. & Barriera, Gabrielle, 2019, Typification of Edmond Boissier’s Cruciferae (Brassicaceae) names enumerated in Flora Orientalis, Boissiera 72, pp. 1-193 : 48

Sisymbrium damascenum Boiss., Diagn. Pl. Orient. ser. 2, 6: 11. 1859.

Type: “Hab. in hortis circà Damascum cl. Dr Gaillardot. Fl. Aprili”.

Lectotypus (designated here): SYRIA: “ Boustan el Nahâs. N. O. de Damas ”, 20.IV.1856, Gaillardot 1580 ( G-BOIS [ G00332176 ]; isolecto-: JE [ JE00001272 ]). Syntypus: SYRIA: “ Boustan Seidoune ouest de Damas ”, 8.IV.1856, Gaillardot 1579ter ( G-BOIS [ G00332177 ], JE [ JE00001273 , JE00001274 ]).

Notes. – Most authors (e.g., HEDGE, 1968: 314) and indices (e.g., IPNI, 2019) erroneously followed Boissier in Flora Orientalis, rather than the original description ( BOISSIER,1859), in attributing the authorship of the species to Boissier and Gaillardot rather than to Boissier alone.

There are two Gaillardot’s specimens in G-BOIS and none in the general herbarium at G. Both specimens were collected on April 1856, but the plant collected on April 8 [G00332177] is in flowers and with small immature fruits, whereas the one collected on April 20 [G00332176] has fully mature fruit and few flowers. BOISSIER (1859) indicated that “Fl. Aprili”, but the original account of the species gives full description of the mature fruit.

Because S. damascenum is closely related to and distinguished primarily from S. irio by having densely scabrid (vs glabrous) fruit, the designation of the fruiting, rather than flowering, material as the lectotype would be the only way to preserve the correct concept of the species limits.