Typification of Bambusa bambos (L.) Voss (Gramineae: Bambusoideae)

Abstract

Summary. The specimens and literature relating to the first validly published bamboo name, Arundo bambos L. are discussed. A previously overlooked specimen collected by Hermann in Sri Lanka, and used by Linnaeus for his Flora Zeylanica, is selected as the lectotype. This specimen is clearly the common thorny bamboo of India, which had conventionally been known as Bambusa arundinacea (Retz.) Willd., or more recently as Bambusa bambos (L.) Voss. Bambusa arundinacea was apparently described from a mixed collection, and it is lectotypified to maintain conventional application of the names of the components, Bambusa arundinacea and Bambusa vulgaris Schrad. ex Wendl. Bambusa bambos (L.) Voss takes priority over the taxonomic synonym Bambusa arundinacea (Retz.) Willd. and is the correct name to use, although Bambusa arundinacea remains the name representative of the type of the conserved genus Bambusa. BACKGROUND Arundo bambos L. was the first validly published name for a bamboo (Linnaeus 1753). Linnaeus gave no description in the first edition of Species Plantarum, merely citing earlier references to Arundo arbor and stating 'habitat in India utraque'. The brief description given in the second edition (Linnaeus 1761) was still inadequate for assessment of which species he intended to name. The identity of Arundo bambos L. has been considered by several taxonomists but without any wholly satisfactory conclusions being reached. It would appear that three bamboo species had been encountered by 1753, a small Chinese species with thorns, and two Indian species of major economic importance, one of these also bearing thorns. In the Linnaean Herbarium there are two specimens of the thorny Chinese species described later as Bambusa flexuosa Munro. Osbeck (1771) reported finding a bamboo on Henan (Honam) Island, Guangzhou (Canton) in 1751, and added that he received its flowers in 1754. The flowers are presumably sheet No. 97.1 in the Linnaean Herbarium, marked '1. Bambos'. The sheet No. 97.2 is sterile and consists of a single leafy, thorn-bearing branchlet. It is possible that Linnaeus might have seen the sterile Osbeck material, No. 97.2, before the publication of Arundo bambos (Linnaeus 1753), but the flowering specimen could only have been received after publication. Thus although Linnaeus may have based his description of Arundo bambos in the second edition of Species Plantarum (1761) on the flowers of Bambusa flexuosa, there is no evidence to suggest that he had this species foremost in his mind when he published the species in the first edition (1753).