Research Article |
Corresponding author: Quentin Groom ( quentin.groom1@plantentuinmeise.be ) Academic editor: Stephen Boatwright
© 2019 Quentin Groom.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Groom Q (2019) Typification of Oxalis bowiei W.T.Aiton ex G.Don (Oxalidaceae). PhytoKeys 119: 23-30. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.119.33280
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Oxalis bowiei W.T.Aiton ex G.Don (Oxalidaceae) from South Africa was described in 1831, but has not been typified. Although no preserved material was mentioned in the original description, an illustration by Thomas Duncanson painted a few years earlier would have been available to W.T. Aiton at the time he described it and it matches his description. Therefore this illustration is designated as the lectotype for Oxalis bowiei.
Oxalis bowii, Oxalis bowieana, Bowie’s woodsorrel, nomenclature, lectotype
Oxalis bowiei W.T.Aiton ex G.Don (Oxalidaceae), commonly known as Bowie’s woodsorrel, is a bulbous perennial from KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is an attractive flowering plant and is occasionally grown horticulturally in mild temperate climates (
Oxalis bowiei was collected by, and named after, James Bowie (circa 1789–2 July 1869) (
The original description of Oxalis bowiei W.T.Aiton ex G.Don from A general history of the dichlamydeous plants by George Don. Taken from the Biodiversity Heritage Library https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/390566 (
Although the original published epithet was bowii, this can be legitimately corrected to bowiei to form a substantival epithet, bowiei, following articles 60.1 and 60.8 of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) (
Occasionally the author citations Oxalis bowiei Herb. ex Lindl. or solely Oxalis bowiei Lindl. are used in the literature (
The illustration of Oxalis bowiei from Edward’s Botanical Register (
Likewise,
The illustration of Oxalis bowiei (as Oxalis bowieana) from The Botanical Cabinet (
No herbarium specimens are mentioned in the description and the only reference to material, is that plants were cultivated from 1824 (“Clt.”), presumably at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where W.T.Aiton was director (
There are no herbarium specimens at Kew for this species during this period. However, Thomas Duncanson was employed by W.T.Aiton at this time to paint plants newly imported and grown at Kew (
A painting of Oxalis bowiei by Thomas Duncanson deposited at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It is painted from material collected by James Bowie in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, East of the Great Fish River. Painted October 23rd 1823. Number: 340, Alternative number: 452. Copyright The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
A slight discrepancy is that the description states “peduncles about equal in length to the leaves”, whereas the Duncanson illustration shows a much longer peduncle. Nevertheless,
Incidentally, other Duncanson illustrations have been used both as lectotypes and as neotypes for several other names of South African species (
Oxalis bowiei W.T.Aiton ex G.Don, Gen. Hist. 1: 761, 1831 [early Aug 1831] (as “Bowii”)
Lectotype, designated here: the illustration number 340 preserved at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K) (Alternative number: 452), painted by Thomas Duncanson, is designated as the lectotype of Oxalis bowiei W.T.Aiton ex G.Don (Fig.
My thanks to the reviewers of the manuscript, and to Sarah Phillips, Marie-Helene Weech, Elizabeth Woodgyer and Julia Buckley at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Filip Verloove of Meise Botanic Garden.