Bradleya 28/2010 pages 79 – 102 What’s in a name: epithets in Aloe L. (Asphodelaceae) and what to call the next new species Estrela Figueiredo 1 and Gideon F. Smith 2 1 H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt Herbarium, Department of Plant Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002 South Africa. Centre for Functional Ecology, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Universidade de Coimbra, 3001–455 Coimbra, Portugal (email: [email protected] ). 2 Office of the Chief Director: Biosystematics Research and Biodiversity Collections, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X101, Pretoria, 0001 South Africa / John Acocks Chair, H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt Herbarium, Department of Plant Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002 South Africa (email: [email protected]). Summary : As part of a recent international und Arabien, wurde aber vorwiegend von collaboration to electronically disseminate infor - Botanikern aus anderen Ländern studiert. mation on Aloe L. (Asphodelaceae), a genus with Insgesamt wurde ein Total von 915 Namen von over 500 accepted species, a comprehensive data - Arten, Unterarten und Varietäten, die über base of epithets used in the genus was compiled. einen Zeitraum von 255 Jahren publiziert Aloe is a truly flagship African, Madagascan and wurden, analysiert, um Trends bei der Wahl Arabian plant genus, but has been studied neuer Namen sowie der Zahl neuer Taxa zu mostly by non-native botanists. A total of 915 finden. Die 876 verschiedenen verwendeten names of species, subspecies and varieties, Epitheta wurden in Kategorien gegliedert, und published over a period of 255 years was die Benennung von Aloe -Taxa wurde auf der analysed to determine trends in the selection of Basis der vorherrschenden historischen und epithets and rate of description of new taxa. The geographischen Rahmenbedingungen analysi - 876 epithets used in these names were classified siert. Aus der Pflanzenmorphologie abgeleitete into categories, and the naming of taxa in Aloe Namen wurden bei der Benennung von Aloen am was analysed taking into account the prevalent häufigsten verwendet, aber in den letzten historical and geographical context. Names Jahren wurden nach Personen oder geographi - derived from plant morphology are the most schen Herkünften gebildete Namen bevorzugt. commonly used in the naming of aloes, but in Interessanterweise waren die Jahrzehnte unmit - recent years naming after people or geography telbar vor den beiden Weltkriegen (d.h. 1901 bis are the preferred options. Interestingly, the 1910 und 1931 bis 1940) sowie die letzten acht decades preceding WWI (1901 to 1910) and Jahre (2001 bis 2008) diejenigen Zeiträume, in WWII (1931 to 1940), and the past eight years welchen die grösste Zahl neuer Taxa beschrieben (2001 to 2008), have been the ones during which wurden. In einem Anhang wird eine Liste aller the largest number of new taxa were described. A Epitheta mit ihren Verwendungsjahren, ihrer list of epithets with their dates of application, Bedeutung und ihrer Ableitung gegeben. meaning and derivation is given in an appendix. Introduction Zusammenfassung : Im Rahmen einer interna - Diverse information is associated with the scien - tionalen Zusammenarbeit zur elektronischen tific names of plants. For example they reflect Verteilung von Informationen über Aloe L. both the past and present classification of the (Asphodelaceae; eine Gattung mit über 500 plant, as well as the author of its description. akzeptierten Arten) wurde eine umfassende Often further information (such as morpholog - Datenbank der in der Gattung verwendeten ical or geographical characteristics) is also Epitheta zusammengestellt. Aloe ist eine beson - obtainable from a name. Of course, scientific ders wichtige Gattung in Afrika, Madagaskar names are not always suitable for the plants they Bradleya 28/2010 79 are given to. As unsuitability does not qualify for and ‘citrinus’ (lemon-yellow) referring to the juice discarding a name, (International Code of turning yellow when it dries (Reynolds, 1950). Botanical Nomenclature [ICBN]: McNeill et al. , Regardless, several authors linked the name to 2006), these names have to be maintained. A clas - the wrong species. sical example of where a name can cause and The Aloes of the World project was initiated perpetuate taxonomic confusion and even confu - recently with the support of nearly 40 interna - sion in geographical origin is Aloe succotrina tional experts on this well-known Old World Weston. The name has a confused and complex genus (Smith et al. , 2008a, 2008b). One of the history, and had erroneous synonymy for over inevitable first phases of any such project aimed 200 years (see Reynolds, 1950 and Smith & Van at compiling exhaustive datasets for electronic Wyk, 1996, for a history of its taxonomy and dissemination is to provide a comprehensive name and Guglielmone et al ., 2009, for clarity on nomenclatural backbone. Constructing such a the author citation). It was thought that ‘succo - dataset for Aloe L. enabled for the first time a trina’ referred to a plant that occurred on the island of Socotra, when in fact it refers to an aloe near-complete analysis of the use of epithets in that is endemic to and grows wild only in the the genus and the identification of trends in its southwestern Cape in South Africa. The epithet scientific naming. The analysis presented here ‘succotrina’ or ‘socotrina’ is based either on the took 915 epithets into account, including those of plant originally being thought to be the source of accepted names and synonyms, as well as the drug ‘socotrine aloes’ which is a product subspecies and varieties, published over a period prepared from the juice of the leaves of the of 255 years (1753–2008). This compilation Socotran endemic Aloe perryi Baker (The presented a unique opportunity to analyse the Pharmaceutical Codex, 1979), or to a compound use of epithets in a large genus and to identify word established from combining ‘succus’ (sap) trends in naming taxa. Figure 1. Rate of publication of new epithets in Aloe from 1753–2008. 80 Bradleya 28/2010 Material and methods Results and discussion The origin and meaning of all the epithets used The list of epithets with their dates of applica - in Aloe was analysed, using several bibliographic tion, meaning and derivation is given in references for etymology, such as Eggli & Newton Appendix 1. The 933 names for which epithets (2004), Glen & Hardy (2000), Gunn & Codd were analysed, were published over a period of (1981), Reynolds (1950, 1966) and Stearn (1985), 255 years (Figure 1). The period 1851–1860 was and also the protologues of many taxa. Names the least productive for Aloe, with a single name originally published in Aloe for taxa that are published ( A. microstigma Salm-Dyck), while the currently referred to other genera (e.g. Aloe most recent period (2001–2008) and the decades herbacea Mill., which is a synonym of Haworthia preceding WWI (1901–1910) and WWII herbacea (Mill.) Stearn) were not included in the (1931–1940) were the most prolific, with the 1 analysis. publication of nearly 300 names, or about /3 of The primary dataset consisted of 1,023 the names available in the genus. The 915 names epithets proposed in Aloe for plants that are for which epithet meanings and derivation was presently referred to this genus. Ninety of these compiled comprised 876 unique epithets. The names were combinations under another species epithet used most often was major (used in seven or at another taxonomic rank based on a taxon names). Thirty-three epithets were used basionym that was already included in the data - more than once. With regard to derivation, 338 base, and therefore these duplicated epithets epithets derive from Latin, 78 from Greek and 6 were not considered in the analysis. For example, have a mixed Greek-Latin origin. The remaining we recorded the epithet barberae for A. barberae epithets are latinised derivations from the names Dyer, but not for A. bainesii var. barberae (Dyer) of places or people, and only a few are rooted in Baker, which is a combination at another rank other languages. for the same entity. Excluding these 90 cases, the The overall results (Table 1) show that epithets of the remaining 933 combinations were Morphology is the most used category in the analysed. Twenty-one of these remain unre - naming of aloes. Nevertheless, over recent years, solved, either because no information could be there has been a decrease in the use of morpho - traced in the literature on the meaning of the logical characters to name these plants (Figure epithets, or due to the unavailability of the proto - 2). This can be the result of either the vanishing logues in which they were established. In spite of knowledge of Botanical Latin (making authors the recommendation 60H.1 in the ICBN (McNeill choose easier ways to construct epithets, based et al. , 2006) (‘The etymology of new names or of on geographical or people names) or to the fact epithets in new names should be given, especially that as the number of taxa in the genus when their meaning is not obvious’) that epithets increases, the obvious epithets that refer to should be explained when names are published, easily observable characters become unavailable cases are still found, even in recent literature, as they are already in use. where such information is lacking; one of these Naming plants after People is the second most cases dates from 2008. popular way of naming of aloes. A further We classified these epithets in the following analysis reveals