Kalanchoe stearnii, Raymond-Hamet, 1941

Smith, Gideon F. & Shtein, Ronen, 2021, The identity of Kalanchoe stearnii (Crassulaceae subfam. Kalanchooideae), Phytotaxa 478 (2), pp. 295-300 : 296-299

Nomenclature of Kalanchoe stearnii

Kalanchoe rotundifolia ( Haworth 1824: 188) Haworth (1825: 31) . Type:—Plate of Kalanchoe rotundifolia dated “Octob.[-er] 1 st. 1823” prepared by Thomas Duncanson of sterile material (a branch in leaf). Below the painting is written: “Raised from seeds + roots forwarded by Mr [James] Bowie in 1822”. (neotype K), designated by Figueiredo & Smith (2017: 111).

Kalanchoe stearnii Raymond-Hamet (1941: 334) , as ‘ Stearni ’, syn. nov. Type:—EX HORT. “Échantillon provenant du Jardin Botanique de Cambridge ”, received from William Stearn in 1933, [specimen received at Herb. P] 19 May 1941, Raymond-Hamet s.n. (lectotype P MNHN-P-P03244928), here designated.

Note on the type of Kalanchoe stearnii :—In a footnote on p. 331 (Raymond-Hamet (1941) stated that “ 1. Un de ces échantillons a été desséché et remis à l’Herbier du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle”. [English: “ 1. One of these specimens was dried and deposited at the Herbarium of the Museum of Natural History”], i.e., Herb. P. This specimen is available for scrutiny online at http://coldb.mnhn.fr/catalognumber/mnhn/p/p03244928. To the bottom left corner of the specimen is attached a label that states: “Bearbeitet für das “Pflanzenreich”. Kalanchoe Stearni Raymond-Hamet Échantillon provenant du Jardin Botanique de Cambridge det: Raymond-Hamet”. A smaller label stating “ TYPE ” in red ink is also affixed to the specimen. A single dried plant specimen is attached to the sheet. In the lower right corner a label is affixed stating: “HERB. MUS. PARIS. Reçu le 19-V-1941 de M. R. Hamet.” Note though that, at least for Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien project, Berger (1930) and not Raymond-Hamet provided the treatment of the Crassulaceae , including of Kalanchoe .

This specimen was evidently available to Raymond-Hamet when he described the species as he personally identified it and it represents original material in the sense of Turland et al. (2018: Art. 9.4). This specimen is here designated as the lectotype of the name K. stearnii , and we record Raymond-Hamet as the collector as he clearly indicated that he prepared the specimen and deposited it at Herb. P .

Note that the epithet “ stearnii ” is misspelt “ steamii ” in the online catalogue of Herb. P. Further, as part of the metadata held for this specimen in the online catalogue of Herb. P it is noted as originating from “Tropical Africa”. However, there is no indication on the specimen itself that it originated from that region.