Toxicodendron melaenum (Unger) Doweld, 2018

Doweld, Alexander B., 2018, Palaeoflora Europaea: Notulae Systematicae ad Palaeofloram Europaeam spectantes I. New names of fossil magnoliophytes of the European Tertiary. I. Miscellaneous families, Phytotaxa 379 (1), pp. 78-94 : 80

Toxicodendron melaenum (Unger) Doweld , comb. nov.

≡ Juglans melaena Unger (1850: 470) — Toxicodendron herthae Kvaček & Walther (1998: 27) , nom. inval. (ICN, Art. 40.1 & 40.7).

non Rhus herthae Unger (18 Apr 1850 a: 473 & 19 Apr 1850 b: 126) ≡ Fagus herthae (Unger) Iljinskaja (1962: 104) , comb. inval. (Art. 41.4) ≡ Fagus herthae (Unger) Iljinskaja (1964: 132) —Type: [fossil leaves] Swoszowice, Kraków, Poland (lectotype designated by Iljinskaja 1964: 133, # 52-13557, State Natural History Museum, L’vov, Ukraine).

Type:—[fossil leaves] Parschlug, Styria, Austria (neotype, designated here, NHMW 1878/6/9252, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria)—figured by Kovar-Eder et al. 2004: pl. 9, fig. 19.

Occurrence:—Miocene; Europe (Eastern).

IFPNI: A782C441-B95A-9A07-33F1-360386C9C16D.

Note:—The distinctive fossil leaves were initially described by Unger as Rhus herthae Unger (1850a: 473) from Parschlug (Styria, Austria) and Swoszowice (Kraków, Poland) and Juglans melaena Unger (1850: 470) from Parschlug (Styria, Austria) only. Both fossil-species were illustrated later by Unger (1860: 38, pl. 19, figs. 8–10 [ J. melaena ] & 42: pl. 20, figs. 7–9 [ R. herthae ]). Upon revision of the Louis Zeuschner collection of the fossil-plants from Swoszowice (Kraków, Poland) in the State Natural History Museum (L’vov, Ukraine), served as a basis for Unger’s protologue of R. herthae along with collection of fossil plants from Parschlug in Graz ( Austria), Iljinskaja (1962, 1964) transferred R. herthae Unger to Fagus as F. herthae (Unger) Iljinskaja , and designated a lectotype from Zeuschner’s specimen (52-13557). The choice of Iljinskaja was absolutely in accord with the requirements of the ICN ( Turland et al. 2018) for typification of species, since Unger (1850a) mentioned two localities (Parschlug and Swoszowice), and she used authentic specimens studied by Unger from one of these localities. The specimens of R. herthae Unger from Parschlug were not studied. When Kvaček & Walther (1998: 27) re-studied Unger’s specimens of Juglans herthae from Parschlug, they realized that these fossil remains could not be attributed to the genus Fagus , but should be related to Toxicodendron Miller (1754: 1393) . They rejected earlier effective lectotypification by Iljinskaja on the grounds that “Unger (1849) described this species for the first time on the basis of the material from Parschlug [sic!]. With hesitation he identified with this species also a leaf from Swoszowice, which was recognized later as a leaf of Fagus L. by Iljinskaja (1962) ”. The errors were that R. herthae was validly published by Unger (18 Apr 1850 a: 473) earlier than his work on the fossil flora of Swoszowice ( Unger 1850b: 126) [not 1849 as sometimes wrongly indicated] and the original protologue contains explicit indication of both localities with no “hesitation” of fossil leaves from Swoszowice as doubtful. The proposed rejection of the previously designated lectotype is inadmissible in the Code, the only exception might be when the choice of the type is in serious conflict with protologue. The situation with R. herthae , representing a heterogeneous fossil taxon, united fagaceous and anacardiaceous fossil foliage, is not the case when the lectotypification could be cancelled and superseded by a new choice. Since the grounds for rejection of the earlier lectotypification are missing, choice of Iljinskaja (1964) should stand, and R. herthae Unger should be accepted as Fagus herthae (Unger) Iljinskaja. Excluding validly designated lectotype of Rhus herthae , a new combination ‘ Toxicodendron herthae (Unger) comb. nov. ’ by Kvaček & Walther (1998: 27) should be technically treated as a new species name, Toxicodendron herthae Kvaček & Walther , nom. inval., which was not unfortunately validly published, since no necessitated type and its repository were designated ( ICN, Art. 40.1 & 40.7). Later a ‘lectotype’ was designated for Toxicodendron herthae Kvaček & Walther , nom. inval., by Kovar-Eder et al. (2004: 80, 146), who continued to erroneously state that “the species concept for Fagus herthae (with the basionym of Rhus herthae Unger 1849 ) that was proposed by Iljinskaja (1962 and 1964) is not based on the original diagnosis and material from Parschlug. It must be rejected along with the therein-selected type specimen”. Since Kovar-Eder et al. (2004) identified Juglans melaena Unger (1850) as a synonym of R. herthae sensu non Iljinskaja, this earliest available species epithet should be taken up as a valid basionym for Parschlugian Toxicodendron . Unfortunately, type originals of Juglans melaena Unger are lost [at least not identifiable in fossil plant collections of Unger in Graz and Vienna]; therefore, a neotype is designated from the specimen NHMW 1878/6/9252 of the same location (Ettingshausen collection, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria).