(1273) Proposal to reject the name Solanum quercifolium (Solanaceae)

Abstract

The name Solanum quercifolium has traditionally been used for one or two South American species because Linnaeus stated in the protologue Habitat in Peru. D. Jussieu and cited in synonymy a plate (Solanum foliis quernis Feuillee, J. Obs. 2: t. 15. 1714) depicting a plant from coastal Chile. Knapp & Jarvis (l.c.) noted that the lectotype specimen in the Linnaean Herbarium (LINN) was probably grown from seeds sent to Linnaeus from Peru by Joseph de Jussieu. However, Dr Michael Nee (New York Botanical Garden) recently pointed out to us (pers. comm.) that this specimen does not, in fact, represent a taxon from South America but instead belongs to the superficially similar species generally known as S. septemlobum Bunge (Enum. P1. China Bor.: 48. 1833) from eastern Asia (Mongolia, Dahuria, Manchuria, and China). S. quercifolium is therefore taxonomically synonymous with, and the earliest legitimate name for, S. septemlobum. To avoid an undesirable nomenclatural change, it is here proposed that S. quercifolium be rejected. Sheet No. 248.8 at LINN was grown in the Botanic Garden in Uppsala, as indicated by Linnaeus's annotation HU. It corresponds very well with, and was probably the basis of, the description given in the protologue in which the inclusion of fine details of flower colour implies that Linnaeus had studied living material. That the specimen represents an eastern Asian species suggests that Jussieu's material may accidentally have become confused with material from a different source.