A prickly matter: nomenclatural synopsis of Onosma L. and its segregates (Boraginaceae)

Abstract

A complete nomenclatural synopsis is provided for Onosma (Boraginaceae) and the allied genera Maharanga and Podonosma, covering each name of new taxa, each new combination and each replacement name communicated since 1753 till October 2021. All the 749 validly published names are listed together with an account of the formal reasons why 136 additional names must be regarded as invalid. Type species are indicated or newly designated for all the infrageneric names. Information is assembled on the types of the 466 names of specific and infraspecific taxa retrieved from a comprehensive survey of the scientific literature and from public databases, with 126 names (27%) lectotypified here. Finally, 42 new combinations are proposed to solve as yet unresolved nomenclatural issues.

Keywords:

• Maharanga
• nomenclature
• Podonosma
• typification

Acknowledgements

Many thanks are expressed to S. L. Mosyakin (Kiev), A. Shukorukov (Moscow) and S. V. Ovchinnikova (Novosibirsk) for kindly providing various publications; A. Erst (Novosibirsk) and the Keeper of the Saint Petersburg herbarium, locating and taking pictures of some of the type specimens kept in LE; F. Khajoej Nasab and A. Mehrabian (Tehran), S. A. Ghazanfar (Kew) and Y. He (Beijing), who shared with us the results (also unpublished ones) of their ongoing research on Onosma in Iran, Iraq and China. We are grateful to the library staff of BGBM Berlin (FU Berlin) for providing copies of various original descriptions that are not available online. Theodor C. H. Cole (FU Berlin) is thanked for English language editing and valuable suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.