Nolina cismontana (Nolinaceae), a New Species Name for an Old Taxon

Abstract

Nolina parryi subsp. wolflii is shown to be a synonym of N. parryi subsp. parryi. Consequently, N. parryi subsp. parryi sensu Munz has been misinterpreted and is without a name. Nolina cismontana is proposed as the name for this undescribed taxon. It is necessary to publish a new name for Nolina parryi S. Watson sensu Munz before volume 11 of the Flora of North America is published. The junior author studied the California Nolina species complex for his M.S. thesis (Dice, 1988). He determined that the name N. parryi was assigned by western botanists to the wrong plants, and consequently these plants are unnamed. Munz (in Munz & Roos, 1950) described Nolina parryi subsp. wolfi based on plants from the Kingston Range in the eastern Mojave Desert and the San Jacinto/Santa Rosa Mountains along the northwestern edge of the Colorado Desert. Plants fitting this description are now known to extend from the Kern Plateau in southern Tulare County south to the Laguna and Pinyon Mountains of San Diego County, California. The taxon is found in the drier parts of the Peninsular Ranges, along the western edge of the Colorado Desert and in the desert ranges of the Mojave Desert. This means that by this interpretation subspecies parryi occurs in the coastal drainages below 3000 feet from Ventura to San Diego counties and west of subspecies wolfii. There is no evidence that Munz ever examined the type of N. parryi. Dice examined the holotypes and isotypes of subspecies parryi and subspecies wolfii. The holotype of subspecies parryi and Watson's (1879) publication of its description indicate that N. parryi came from the desert east of San Bernardino and not from the coastal side of the mountains. The leaves on this holotype and isotype are wider than what Munz allows for his subspecies parryi and would key out in his keys to subspecies wolfii. Subspecies wolfi is a synonym for Watson's typical N. parryi, and the plants from the coastal drainages that Munz was calling subspecies parryi are without