The name Rosa davurica var. alpestris (Nakai) Kitag. was published in 1979 as a new combination based on R. rubro-stipullata var. alpestris Nakai. It is generally accepted as a deciduous shrub occurring in Russia, Manchuria, Japan, and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula and is distinguished by the presence of eglandular leaves. Rosa rubro-stipullata var. alpestris was originally described as a new variety with a leaf size relatively smaller than that of R. rubro-stipullata var. rubro-stipullata . However, the observation of various specimens showed the leaf size of var. alpestris to be of minor importance, and it was included in var. rubro-stipullata as a synonym. Due to the priority of autonyms, a new combination is required to replace R. davurica var. alpestris. Additionally, it should be noted that the epithet “rubro-stipullata” is derived from the Latin word “stipula” rather than “stipulla.” Therefore, for this variety, we propose a new combination, R. davurica var. rubro-stipulata (Nakai) D. C. Son & Y. S. Kim, comb. nov. & stat. nov.

autonym, nomenclature, priority, Shenzhen Code

Rosa davurica var. alpestris (Nakai) Kitag. is a deciduous shrub distributed through Russia, Manchuria, Japan, and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Rosa davurica Pall. is remarkable because of the variable shape of its leaflets, from narrowly to broadly elliptic, and the absence or presence of glands on their lower surface. The varietal name is commonly applied to plants of R. davurica with eglandular leaflets (Kitagawa 1979; Lee 2003; Ohba 2001). Further morphological observations showed that var. alpestris is readily distinguished from var. davurica by the presence of eglandular rachis and petiole, abaxial surface of calyx lobe sparsely glandular or eglandular, and flower 2~3 cm in diam. (Fig. 1; Table 1).

Figure 1. 

Morphological characters distinguishing R. davurica (A, C, E) and R. davurica var. alpestris (B, D, F) A, B leaves C, D calyx lobe E, F flower. Photo Credits: Dong-Hyuk Lee.

Rosa davurica var. alpestris (Nakai) Kitag. was published in 1979, as a new combination based on R. rubro-stipullata var. alpestris Nakai. Rosa rubro-stipullata var. alpestris Nakai was originally described as a new variety with a leaf size relatively smaller than that of R. rubro-stipullata var. rubro-stipullata (Nakai 1916). However, based on several specimens, including type specimens of var. alpestris and var. rubro-stipullata, we observed that although the leaf size of Rosaalpestris was smaller than that of var. rubro-stipullata, this character does not correlate with any other morphological trait or geographical feature, and it is not taxonomically worthy of being recognized as a variety. Therefore, it is reasonable to regard R. rubro-stipullata var. alpestris as a synonym of R. rubro-stipullata var. rubro-stipullata. In practice, R. rubro-stipullata var. rubro-stipullata has been treated as a synonym of R. davurica var. alpestris in the literature (Kitagawa 1979; Ohba 2001; Chang et al. 2014; Korea National Arboretum 2020; POWO 2023; WFO 2023).

Figure 2. 

Type specimens of Rosa rubro-stipulata var. rubro-stipulata A lectotype (TI00022345) B syntype (TI00022346).

According to the rules of the ICN (Turland et al. 2018), “An autonym is treated as having priority over the name (s) of the same date and rank that upon their valid publication established the autonym,” and a new combination is required to replace R. davurica var. alpestris because of the priority of the autonym (see ICN Article 11.6 Ex. 28). Meanwhile, the epithet “rubro-stipullata” is derived from the Latin word “stipula” rather than “stipulla”, hence it should be corrected to “rubro-stipulata” (see ICN Article 60.1). Therefore, for this variety, we propose a new combination, Rosa davurica var. rubro-stipulata (Nakai) D. C. Son & Y. S. Kim.

Figure 3. 

Type specimens of Rosa rubro-stipulata var. alpestris A lectotype (TI00022341) B–D syntype (TI00022342, TI00022343, TI00022344).

We sincerely thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions regarding the previous version of this manuscript. We would like to thank Mr. Dong-Hyuk Lee from the Korea National Arboretum for providing us with Rosa photographs for the study.