Nothoscordum gracile and N.

borbonicum (Alliaceae)
Author(s): Pierfelice Ravenna
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Taxon, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Aug., 1991), pp. 485-487
Published by: International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1223230 .
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AUGUST 1991 485

Richter, K. 1890. Plantae europeae, 1. Engelmann, Leipzig.

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Nothoscordum gracile and N. borbonicum (Alliaceae)

Pierfelice Ravenna1

Summary
Ravenna,P.:NothoscordumgracileandN. borbonicum(Alliaceae).- Taxon40: 485-487.
1991.- ISSN0040-0262.
Theweedyspecieslong knownas Nothoscordumfragrans is N. borbonicumKunth,not N.
gracile.It is postulatedthatN. borbonicumoriginatedas a naturalhybridbetweentwo wild
species,N. entrerianum andgenuineN. gracile,in the areaof BuenosAires,Argentina.The
differencesbetween N. gracile and N. borbonicumare given. Nothoscordumsubg.
Euryscordum(type:N. gracile)is proposedto replaceN. subg.Platyscordum,the type of
which,N. inodorum,belongsin Allium.

Steam (1986) discussed the application of the binomial Nothoscordum inodorum

(Aiton) Nicholson and proved that the plant described as Allium inodorum Sol. ex
Aiton (1789, 1: 427) actually was a true Allium, the correct name of which is A.
neapolianum Cirillo. He then revised the status of what he believed to be the weedy
species, long erroneously considered either as N. inodorum or most often as N.
fragrans Vent. In this context, when referring to the first misapplication of the

INTA,Universidadde Chile,Casilla15138,Santiago11,Chile.

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486 TAXON VOLUME 40

Table 1. Characters of Nothoscordum gracile and N. borbonicum

Character N.gracile N. borbonicum

Flowersopening in the evening, Flowersopening mid-afternoon,

Anthesis well expandedat nightand lastinguntillate evening.
lastinguntilnext morning

Filaments linear-cuspidate,closely contiguous linear-lanceolate,contiguous

contiguousfor most of theirlength in the lowerhalf,or less

ellipsoid-oblongto almostcylindrical
Ovary or obovoidand shortlyprolonged obovoid
below intoathickcarpophore
(accordingto the subspecies)

binomial Allium inodorum to A. gracile Aiton by Ker-Gawler(1808) and Ker-Gawler's

(1810)subsequent emendation of this mistake, Steam alluded to the species as "now to
be called Nothoscordum gracile, but long known as N. fragrans".Moreover, the sum-
mary of his work stated: "The correct name of the widely naturalized weedy species
known as N. inodorum or as N.
fragrans (Vent.) Kunth is N. gracile (Aiton) Steam, syn. Allium gracile Aiton (1789)".
Steam probably had not the opportunity to examine in detail the weedy species, which
is actually different from N. gracile.
The first published name for the weedy species appears to be Nothoscordum bor-
bonicum Kunth (1843:462), based on plants originally collected on the island of Bour-
bon, at present Reunion. N. sulvia (D. Don) Kunth, which would have priority, does
not belong to this species and is probably an Allium. N. nidulans Philippi (1896:268) is
a synonym of N. borbonicum.
Nothoscordum borbonicum is adapted to a variety of conditions all around the
world. Hybrid vigour might be the cause of this versatility. Some chromosome studies
(Garber, 1944; Dyer, 1967) disclosed apparent structural heterozygosity in this species
(as N. fragrans). N. borbonicum is not found in the wild, but only as naturalized in
gardens, parks, or along roads, often near houses. It is postulated here that it
originated by natural hybridization between N. gracile and N. entrerianumRavenna in
the area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. There, ruderal forms of the latter two species are
often found growing together or close to each other. The three species are the only
ones in the genus with 2n = 19 chromosomes.
It is necessary to reviewthe alleged origin of Aiton's Allium gracile. It was said to be
from Jamaica and called "Jamaica garlic".This was probably based on information
from Mr. Hinton East, who introduced the plant to Kew Gardens in 1787. This
gentleman probably was an amateur gardener, and amateurs do not care sometimes
about documenting the origin of their plants, since their purpose is merely to enjoy
their beauty. It seems more likely that Nothoscordum gracile had been collected in the
Rio de la Plata basin, possibly in the Uruguay Republic, where it is rather frequent.
The species is also found wild in the "sierras" of Buenos Aires Province; however,
these were relatively out of reach in the 18th century. N. macrostemon Kunth
originally was described on plants from Uruguay, and now appears to be a synonym

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AUGUST 1991 487

of N. gracile. A similar kind of mistake on the origin of a species, also in "Hortus

Kewensis",is that of A. inodorum Sol. ex Aiton (i.e., A. neapolitanum), a species of
southern Europe, but listed as from Carolina (USA) and called "Carolina garlic".
The type specimen of Nothoscordum gracile, in the Natural History Museum (BM),
shows the unmistakable, contiguous, linear-cuspidate anther filaments (see Table 1) of
Ker-Gawler's(1808) description and figure, made after a plant from Dryander'sstock.
Under the same cover as the type there are two collections from Jamaica, good
representativesof N. borbonicum.
Small (1928) described and illustrated Nothoscordum borbonicum (as N. fragrans)
from plants collected in the southeastern United States and grown at New York. The
bulbs came from a population found growing among ballast material (rocks) from
Africa, left there by ships. This suggests that the species was first introduced into the
United States in the southeast, presumably emigrating from Africa.
Nothoscordum gracile is a complex of several subspecies (Ravenna, unpubl.) that
have non-overlapping distributions from the Buenos Aires Province through north-
eastern Argentina, Paraguayand Uruguay to the State of Parana, or possibly even Sao
Paulo, in southern Brazil.
Several years ago, I proposed Nothoscordum subg. Platyscordum Ravenna (1978)
with N. inodorum (Aiton) Nicholson as the type. Since then, it turned out that the lat-
ter is a synonym of Allium neapolitanum. Obviously my subgeneric name cannot any
more be used in Nothoscordum, and a new subgenus is therefore established.

Nothoscordum subg. Euryscordum Ravenna, subg. nov. - Typus:N. gracile (Aiton)

Steam (Allium gracile Aiton).
A N. subg. Nothoscordum, Enoscordum et Monanthoscordum inflorescentia ab
initio anthesis densa, pedicellis brevibus tempore interposito elongatis differt.
Filamenta ad basin tantum vel usque ad tertiam partem superiorem coalita.
Other species included are: N. andicola Kunth, N. arenariumHerter, N. balaenense
Ravenna, N. boliviense Ravenna, N. borbonicum Kunth, N. entrerianumRavenna, N.
nudicaule (Lehm.) Guaglian, N. paradoxon Ravenna.

Acknowledgements
I thankDr. RoyVickery(BM)for enablingme to consultthe Herbariumduringa shortvisitto
The NaturalHistoryMuseumin 1989.

Literaturecited
Aiton, W. 1789.Hortuskewensis,1.Nicol, London.
Dyer,A. F 1967.The maintenanceof structuralheterozygosityin Nothoscordumfragrans.
Caryologia20:287-308.
Garber,E. 1944. Spontaneousalterationsof chromosomemorphologyin Nothoscordum
fragrans.Amer.J Bot. 31:161-165.
Ker-Gawler, J. 1808.Alliuminodorum.Bot. Mag. 28:tab. 1129.
- 1810."ForAlliuminodorumreadAlliumgracile".Bot. Mag. 31:subtab. 1293.
Kunth,C. S. 1843.Enumeratioplantarum,4. Coller,Stuttgart&Tubingen.
Philippi,R. A. 1896.PlantasnuevasChilenas...Liliaceas.Anales Univ.Chile93:261-275.
Ravenna,P. 1978.Studiesin theAlliaceae[sphalm.typ. "Allieae"]II. PI. Life 34: 150-151.
Small,J. K. 1928.Nothoscordumfragrans.Addisonia33:pl. 433.
Steam, W. T. 1986. Nothoscordumgracile, the correctname of N. fragrans and the N.
inodorumof authors(Alliaceae).Taxon35: 335-338.

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