Veronica kurdica Benth. f. major Bornm.

Veronica kurdica Benth. f. major Bornm. View in CoL

Bulletin de l’herbier Boissier 7: 971 ( Bornmüller 1907b).

TYPE CITATION. — Iran, Mazandaran: “In regione alpina montis Demawend [= Damavand], 30-3500 m. s. m. (17.VII. 1902; no 7818 et 7819; c. fruct.)”. — “In montibus prope Paschinar, 5- 600 m. s. m. (12. V. 1992; no 7813, c. fruct.)”.

LECTOTYPE (designated here). — “ J. Bornmüller: Iter Persicum alterum. 7818 […] Persia borealis: m. Demawend in regione alpina 30-3500 m. s. m. 1902. VII. 17. Leg. J. et A. Bornmüller ”, P[P03529306*].

Nomenclatural note. Bornmüller (1907b) also described the variation of V. kurdica , providing three intraspecific taxa ( V. kurdica f. major , f. inciso-crenata, f. nivalis ). Of these, only the first and last form were considered to belong to V. kurdica by Fischer (1981) with V. kurdica f. inciso-crenata being synonymized with V. orientalis . Given the polyphyly of V. orientalis ( Sonibare et al. 2014; Doostmohammadi et al. 2022) it is not clear, though, to which clade of V. orientalis this taxon belongs. Bornmüller (1907b) states three of his collections under V. kurdica f. major and V. kurdica f. inciso-crenata, each, and five under V. kurdica f. nivalis . Surprisingly, none of the latter has been found, yet. Of the three collections of V. kurdica f. major only one, and of V. kurdica f. inciso-crenata only two have been found so far and only one each has been found in P with the Paris specimen of V. kurdica f. major being the only one specimen of this taxon at all. The two collections of V. kurdica f. inciso-crenata, no. 7814 and no. 7823, differ considerably in leaf morphology with no. 7814 having incised leaves all the way up to the vegetative apex, whereas no. 7823 better conforms to the protologue with ovate or oblong and incised leaves below only.