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M. Aghababyan, W. Greuter, P. Mazzola & F. M. Raimondo Typification of names of Compositae taxa described from Sicily by Michele Lojacono Pojero Abstract Aghababyan, M., Greuter, W., Mazzola, P. & Raimondo, F. M.: Typification of names of Compositae taxa described from Sicily by Michele Lojacono Pojero. — Fl. Medit. 18: 513-528. 2008. — ISSN 1120-4052. Lojacono described and named 89 new Compositae taxa (32 species, 52 varieties, 5 formae), mostly in his Flora sicula, in 1903, but sometimes in earlier, lesser known papers. In spite of problems (here discussed) to find and recognise his original material in the Palermo Herbarium (PAL), for 58 names types (mostly here designated) have been found in Palermo. Discounting 3 names typified by illustrations and 5 with lectotypes designated in Naples and Geneva, 23 remain that cannot be typified for the time being. Eleven of Lojacono’s new species names are still in use currently. Among them is Filago cuneata, long forgotten but here redeemed. Key words: Compositae, Filago, Lojacono, Sicilian flora, Palermo herbarium, typification. Introduction The present paper is part of a project aimed at a better understanding of the Sicilian taxa described as new by Michele Lojacono Pojero, in particular those that appear in his five- volume “Flora Sicula”. That Flora, for its time a remarkably complete and analytical work, treats all spontaneous or naturalised vascular plants found growing in Sicily. Not much has been published so far on Lojacono (Dia 1987). Among Sicilian botanists he is one of the least known, being less famous – but of no lesser importance – than many of his predecessors and contemporaries. He was born in Palermo in either 1848 (De Gregorio 1923) or 1853 (Burdet 1976: 345-346, Stafleu & Cowan 1981: 150-152, Troia & Raimondo 2007), and was trained in botany by Agostino Todaro, renowned expert of the Sicilian flora, to whom he was to dedicate his Flora. He collected and studied the flora of Sicily, and to a lesser extent southern Italy, and sold several Centuriae of Italian, especial- ly Sicilian plants collected by him and some of his correspondents. To promote his studies and commercial activities he upheld an ample correspondence with the keepers and own- ers of the important European herbaria of his time. The last years of his life are again obscure. He appears to have left Palermo some time after 1913, when he had a severe alter- cation with Todaro’s successor Antonino Borzì over the latter’s paper on Sicilian oaks 514 Aghababyan & al.: Typification of names of Compositae taxa described ... (Lojacono 1913-1915), but he remained scientifically active, publishing papers on various topics (Lojacono 1916, 1917) till two years before his death in Messina, in 1919. In order to evaluate Lojacono’s contribution to the knowledge of the Sicilian flora we have chosen one of the largest families, Compositae, as a test sample. The Sicilian inventory of this family has been recently updated (Giardina & al. 2007, Greuter 2008). Typification of Lojacono’s names of taxa is essential to clarify their application, corrobo- rate their synonymy with names currently in use or, when appropriate, rescue those unjust- ly lost in oblivion. An example of the latter category is Filago cuneata Lojac., that used to be treated as a synonym of F. pyramidata L. As a first step, an inventory was made of Sicilian Compositae taxa published by Lojacono, not only in his “Flora Sicula” (Lojacono 1903) but also in previous papers (Lojacono 1883, 1884, 1885). As a result, a list of 89 names was produced, most of them infraspecific (52 varieties, 5 formae) but still 32 of specific rank, of which 11 are still (or again) in use: Anthemis aeolica, A. concolor, A. ismelia, A. lopadusana, Centaurea aeolica, C. panormitana, Cirsium vallis-demonii, Filago cuneata, Hieracium nebrodense, Taraxacum caramanicae, and T. gasparrinii. Obviously, the genera best represented in the list are the variable, complex and taxo- nomically critical ones, in order: Anthemis (16 names), Centaurea (12), Senecio (10), Cirsium (8) and Carduus (8). The predominance of Anthemis it is still more pronounced when taxa described by previous Sicilian authors, like Bivona, Tineo, Todaro and Gussone, are included. While working on his Flora, Lojacono was based in Palermo, mostly employed as Assistant at the Palermo Botanic Garden, and he based most of what he wrote on material kept in the Palermo Herbarium (PAL). Often (but by no means always) he explicitly cited specimens deposited in that Herbarium. In order to typify his names, the material preserved in PAL is the mandatory start. This search revealed itself to be surprisingly difficult, and at times frustrating, as in several cases our search was vain – even when “Herb. Pan.” was mentioned in the protologue. The following is an account of the main kinds of problems encountered: — The way in which Lojacono cited seen material is far from consistent; for example, the localities and collections for a given variety are sometimes mentioned immediately after the description, sometimes at the end of the species treatment, preceded by the letter that designates the variety, and sometimes it is not mentioned at all. — The localities in the protologue, when they are mentioned, do not always coincide exactly with those that appear on corresponding herbarium labels. — The locality may be given in generalised terms only, or not be mentioned at all; this is often (but not always) due to the fact that the labels of the material seen by Lojacono lack data. He repeatedly complained in his Flora of the carelessness and lack of pre- cision of others who failed to label their material properly – but then he himself, as we shall see, was no better. — The same deficiencies apply to the collectors’names, which are but rarely mentioned on the labels; it is often possible to identify the collector from the handwriting, which was of course familiar to Lojacono, but the extent to which collectors’ information appears in the Flora is completely erratic. Flora Mediterranea 18 — 2008 515 — Lojacono had no organised policy in annotating the specimens he used, including his own gatherings; in PAL, original labels with locality data by resident botanists, including Todaro and Lojacono, are disappointingly few. It is possible (but remains to be proved) that Lojacono did no longer have unlimited access to the PAL herbarium at the time of his writing up the Compositae for his Flora. — Many of the (imprecise and incomplete) annotations of Lojacono are not attached to the specimen but pinned to the folders. It must have frequently happened that the specimens within a folder were removed, reclassified or misfiled by the diligence or carelessness of subsequent workers. — Even bearing in mind all the above mentioned difficulties of locating the material, it is obvious that in a number of cases specimens seen by Lojacono in PAL, and so explicitly cited by him, do no longer exist. As many of the specimens present are in an advanced state of degradation (mainly due to herbarium beetle attack), one is led to suppose that the missing specimens were at some stage discarded. — In two cases the folders bearing the original, autograph labels of Lojacono still exist, but are empty of content. — In several instances the decision whether a given specimen is part of the material used by Lojacono was difficult, due to lack of corroborating annotations; it was then necessary to decide, based on the original descriptions, whetheer or not such specimens were acceptable as lectotypes (or by default, neotypes). Original material for 58 of the names has been found in the Hebarium Siculum of Palermo (PAL), which allowed to designate a type. In some cases, a unique specimen was cited in the protologue and found in the herbarium, which we then considered as the holotype. However, when there is no certainty that only one specimen had been used, we pre- fer to consider a single available element as lectotype not holotype. When several original (or presumed original) elements were present, we gave preference to an element unam- biguously associated with the protologue; other things being equal, we cose the most complete and best preserved specimen. For 3 names, in the absence of herbarium material, an original illustration is designated as type. For 28 names, for which no original material could be found in PAL and no illustration exists, it is necessary to search in the holdings of other herbaria in the hope to find specimens suitable for typification – a difficult task for the future, with uncertain chances of success. Whereas Lojacono was based at Palermo for most of his life, he also distributed (sold) numerous specimens to others (it appears that none of his widely distributed Centuriae is present in PAL). When collections by other botanists are mentioned in the protologue, duplicates may exist in other herbaria. A verification in Naples (NAP, Herbarium Gussoneanum Siculum) has already been undertaken, with positive result in 3 cases, and 2 further lectotypes have been designated in Geneva (G-BU), reducing to 23 the number of untypified names. The names of our inventory are given below in alphabetical order of tribes, genera and species, followed by: (1) reference to their place of valid publication; (2) relevant – [het- erotypic] or (homotypic) – synonymy, with the name currently accepted as correct in bold- face Italic type; (3) indication of locality, collectors, illustrations etc. as they appear in the protologue, and (4), whenever available, the designated type, with a transcript of [folder label text, when appropriate], label information, and details of herbarium deposit. The 516 Aghababyan & al.: Typification of names of Compositae taxa described ... abbreviation MLP stands for Michele Lojcono Pojero.

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