Taxonomic notes on the New Zealand flora: lectotypes in the fern families Dennstaedtiaceae and Lindsaeaceae

ABSTRACT

Dennstaedtiaceae is a medium-sized family of ferns in New Zealand with 11 indigenous and two naturalised species. Lindsaeaceae is a small family with just three native species and one naturalised. Three lectotypes are chosen for basionyms relevant to New Zealand: Dicksonia davallioides R.Br., Lindsaea trilobata Colenso and Pteris vespertilionis Labill. Justification for the choice is provided in each case. This short communication is a contribution towards clarifying the taxonomic and nomenclatural status of New Zealand plants for the plant names database (Ngā Tipu Aotearoa) and the electronic Flora of New Zealand.

KEYWORDS:

• Dennstaedtiaceae
• Dicksonia davallioides
• lectotypes
• Lindsaea trilobata
• Lindsaeaceae
• New Zealand flora
• Pteris alpina
• Pteris vespertilionis
• taxonomy

Introduction

The fern family Dennstaedtiaceae is currently represented in New Zealand by 11 indigenous species: Histiopteris incisa (Thunb.) J.Sm., Hypolepis amaurorachis (Kunze) Hook., H. ambigua (A.Rich.) Brownsey & Chinnock, H. dicksonioides (Endl.) Hook., H. distans Hook., H. lactea Brownsey & Chinnock, H. millefolium Hook., H. rufobarbata (Colenso) N.A.Wakef., Leptolepia novae-zelandiae (Colenso) Mett. ex Diels, Paesia scaberula (A.Rich.) Kuhn and Pteridium esculentum (G.Forst.) Cockayne, and by two naturalised species: Dennstaedtia davallioides (R.Br.) T.Moore and Microlepia strigosa (Thunb.) C.Presl (Brownsey & Perrie forthcoming, a). Pteridium esculentum is represented only by subsp. esculentum. The family Lindsaeaceae includes three indigenous species: Lindsaea linearis Sw., L. trichomanoides Dryand. and L. viridis Colenso, and one naturalised species: Odontosoria chinensis (L.) J.Sm. (Brownsey & Perrie forthcoming, b).

The synonymy for these species includes 30 basionyms that are either based on New Zealand material or have been referred to in earlier New Zealand Floras. Lectotypes have previously been chosen for 15 of these: Cheilanthes pellucida Colenso (= Hypolepis dicksonioides), Davallia novae-zelandiae Colenso (= Leptolepia novae-zelandiae), Hypolepis millefolium, Lindsaea viridis, Polypodium viscidum Colenso (= Hypolepis rufobarbata), and Pteris montana Colenso (= Histiopteris incisa) by Allan (1961), Adiantum cuneatum G.Forst. (= Lindsaea trichomanoides) by Kramer & Tindale (1976), Cheilanthes ambigua A.Rich. (= Hypolepis ambigua), Cheilanthes dicksonioides Endl. (= Hypolepis dicksonioides), Hypolepis distans, Hypolepis petrieana Carse (= H. ambigua), Polypodium amplum Colenso (= Hypolepis ambigua) and P. rufobarbatum Colenso (= Hypolepis rufobarbata) by Brownsey & Chinnock (1984), Cheilanthes amaurorachis Kunze (= Hypolepis amaurorachis) by Brownsey & Chinnock (1987) and Pteris esculenta G.Forst. (= Pteridium esculentum) by Brownsey (1989). The holotypes for Lindsaea lessonii Bory (= L. trichomanoides), L. linearis and L. trichomanoides were identified by Kramer & Tindale (1976), those for Hypolepis lactea and H. subantarctica Brownsey & Chinnock (= H. amaurorachis) by Brownsey & Chinnock (1984), and those for Histiopteris incisa and Pteris brunoniana Endl. (= Histiopteris incisa) by Brownsey (1998). Holotypes for a further five basionyms—Davallia pinkneyi Colenso (= Microlepia strigosa), Lindsaea lunata Willd. (= L. linearis), Pteris microphylla A.Cunn. (= Paesia scaberula), Pteris scaberula A.Rich. (= Paesia scaberula) and Trichomanes strigosum Thunb. (= Microlepia strigosa)—were identified by Brownsey & Perrie (forthcoming, a, b).

Lectotypes for the three remaining basionyms, Dicksonia davallioides R.Br., Lindsaea trilobata Colenso and Pteris vespertilionis Labill. are selected here as part of a series on New Zealand’s indigenous ferns (Brownsey & Parris 2012; Brownsey & Perrie 2012, 2013, 2014a, 2014b, 2015, 2016a, 2016b) clarifying the taxonomic and nomenclatural status of New Zealand plants for the plant names database (Ngā Tipu Aotearoa) (http://nzflora.landcareresearch.co.nz/default.aspx?NavControl=search&selected=NameSearch) and the electronic Flora of New Zealand (http://www.nzflora.info/).

Materials and methods

Herbarium abbreviations follow Thiers (2016). Type material was sought in herbaria known to house the main collections of relevant authors: BM (The Natural History Museum, London, UK) and K (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK) for Robert Brown (Stafleu & Cowan 1976); AK (Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland, New Zealand), K and WELT (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand) for William Colenso (Stafleu & Cowan 1976; Brownsey 1979); FI (Natural History Museum, University of Florence, Italy) and P (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France) for Labillardière (Stafleu & Cowan 1979). Images of some of the types can be viewed through the relevant institutional websites or JSTOR Global Plants (http://plants.jstor.org). Syntypes for each species comprise only single morphological entities unless otherwise stated.

Lectotypification

Dicksonia davallioides R.Br., Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holland. 158 (1810) = Dennstaedtia davallioides (R.Br.) T.Moore, Index Fil. 305 (1861)

Lectotype

(designated here). Paterson’s River [New South Wales], R. Brown Iter Austral. 93, Oct. 1804, BM 001048114!

Notes

Dicksonia davallioides was described by Brown (1810) from specimens he collected from Paterson’s River in the area around Port Jackson, New Holland (now Sydney, Australia). There are specimens so-labelled collected in October 1804 (No. 93) at BM (001048114) and at K (000913887). The specimen at BM is designated here as the lectotype because it is a much more complete specimen, and because Brown’s main herbarium is held there (Stafleu & Cowan 1976). The specimen at K is not necessarily an isolectotype because the collection data are not identical with those on the BM specimen and it cannot be assumed that the two specimens came from the same gathering.

Lindsaea trilobata Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 16: 345 (1884) = Lindsaea linearis Sw., J. Bot. (Schrader) 1800(2): 78 (1801)

Lectotype

(designated here). Wangaparapara [Whangaparapara], Great Barrier Island, Herb. W. Colenso ex Herb. C.P. Winkelmann, WELT P002771!

Notes

Lindsaea trilobata was described by Colenso (1884) from specimens he collected near the north head of Wellington Harbour in 1846–1847, and from specimens collected by C.P. Winkelmann in 1883 at Whangaparapara on the west coast of Great Barrier Island, and from Thames. There are specimens in WELT collected by Colenso from ‘hills near Wellington’ (WELT P002762) and by Winkelmann from ‘Wangaparapara, Great Barrier, W. coast’ (WELT P002771). The latter sheet is labelled ‘type of L. trilobata Col.’ by Thomas Cheeseman, but this does not constitute a lectotypfication. A second sheet (WELT P003323) has a label in Victor Zotov’s handwriting copied from WELT P002771. Kramer and Tindale (1976) also cited a specimen collected by Winkelmann in January 1883 from Whangaparapara (NSW P9517). There is an unlocalised collection at K received from Colenso in Dec. 1885 (K 001089050). WELT P002771 is designated here as the lectotype because it is the most complete specimen, has collection data which fit most closely with the protologue, and bears a label indicating its provenance from the Winkelmann herbarium. WELT P003323 is almost certainly an isolectotype.

Pteris vespertilionis Labill., Nov. Holl. Pl. 2: 96, t. 245 (1807) = Histiopteris incisa (Thunb.) J.Sm., Hist. Fil. 294 (1875)

Lectotype

(designated here). Van Diemen [Tasmania], Labillardière, FI 004178 (!online).

Notes

Pteris vespertilionis was described by Labillardière (1807) from material collected ‘in capite Van-Diemen’, identified by Stafleu (1966) as Storm Bay, Tasmania. There is one sheet in the Webb Herbarium in FI, labelled ‘Van Diemen’, and another at P, Herb. Jussieu no. 1330 (photo WELT E478/2), labelled ‘Nov. Holland.’. The sheet in FI is designated here as the lectotype because it is a more complete specimen, has an extensive descriptive label in Labillardière’s writing, and is in his own herbarium (Stafleu & Cowan 1979).

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to staff at AK, BM, FI, K, P and WELT for access to collections in their care.

Associate Editor: Dr Peter de Lange.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Core funding for Crown Research Institutes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Science and Innovation Group.