Fissidens closteri

Fedosov, V. E., Wei, Y., Ho, BC., Atwood, J., Kuznetsova, O. I. & Ignatov, M. S., 2024, The genus Fissidens in Russia, III: Fissidens kiusiuensis (Bryophyta), new species for the Russian Far East, Arctoa 33 (2), pp. 107-116 : 114-115

Correction of the lectotype of Fissidens closteri

Fissidens closteri Austin, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 5(5): 21. 1874. Lectotype. [ U.S.A., New Jersey] Nagel’s Ravine, Sept-4-1871, Austin (NY (NY00324944!), designated by Iwatsuki 1958:25 as “ U.S.A.; New Jersey —near Closter, 1865, Austin — holotype ”); isolectotype. FH (FH01138426!).

C. F. Austin’s (1874) protologue for F. closteri has the type citation: “ On stones along woodland rivulets, on the Palisades, near Closter , New Jersey ”, as well as references to W. S. Sullivant’s (1875) Icones Muscorum, Supplement. Seven specimens of original material are preserved in Austin’s personal herbarium, now at NY, in addition to three specimens of original material in Sullivant’s personal herbarium, now at FH. All of these specimens belong to F. closteri , include notes or labels in Austin’s handwriting and span approximately eight-years of collecting dates from 1865 to 1872 .

Iwatsuki (1958) designated the oldest among these as the lectotype, citing: “ U.S.A.; New Jersey –near Closter, 1865, Austin – holotype ( NY)”, although his annotation slip does not appear on any of the NY specimen packets. One specimen packet in NY from Austin’s herbarium (NY00324944!) has the label “Nagel’s Brook, Sept. 1865 ” and “Anderson’s Brook, Aug. 12 th 1872 ” and is the best match for Iwatsuki’s type citation due to the inclusion of “1865” on the label. The packet contains several slips of paper with notes in Austin’s handwriting. On one of these is “ Sept. 9 1865, with Jung. pumila”, and below that is “Seligeria pusilla” crossed out with “ F. closteri Aust. ” written beneath it and “sent all to Sulliv!”. Also in that same NY packet is a piece of paper with four clumps of rock glued to it with the note “Nagel’s Ravine, Sept-4- 1871 ”. Since the 1865 material has long been absent from the NY packet, this specimen would have been the only material available to Iwatsuki from this packet in 1958 .

In FH is a specimen packet (FH01138425!) bearing Sullivant’s stamp with the label “ Fissidens closteri n.sp. (with Jung. pumila With.) on earth along a rivulet, 1 mi. N. East of Closter Station, July & Sept. 1865, CFA.” It contains a few plants of F. closteri and a note “See good specimen, Rec’d Sept. 7 1871.” This note references a much larger specimen (FH01138426!) that was used by Sullivant for his illustration of F. closteri (1875, Pl. 29, PL. 9A) according to notes on the packet and copy of the illustration.

Since there is no specimen of F. closteri in NY from 1865, Art. 9.19 of the IUCN (Turland et al. 2018) does not apply. Either the date from Iwatsuki’s (1958) type citation must be corrected to 1871 since that is the date on the specimen, or the institution that he cited must be corrected to FH since that is where the 1865 material is deposited. Alternatively, a new lectotype could be designated from among the original material, although that would undesirably change the date of typification. Rath- er, we prefer to correct the date cited by Iwatsuki for the NY specimen to 1871. Doing so preservers the NY pack- et that Iwatsuki considered to be ‘holotype’ material and the plants thought to be from 1865. The 1865 specimen in FH is small and incomplete compared to the 1871 specimen at NY that seemingly was used by Austin for his description of F. closteri . The FH duplicate of the 1871 specimen was furthermore used by Sullivant for his illustration of the species.

New Jersey, [Bergen County], 1 mile north east of Closter Station , July and Sept. 1865, C. F. Austin (FH01138425); one half mile n.e. of Closter, 4 Sept. 1871, C. F. Austin, (FH01138426); on stones, bank of rivulets on the palisades near Closter, 8 Sept. 1871, C. F. Austin (FH01138427); Anderson Brook, 12 Aug. 1872, C. F. Austin (NY00324945); near Closter, Sept. 1872, C. F. Austin (NY00304571); Closer, Aug. 12 th 1872, C. F. Austin (NY00304578); on rocks along shady rivulet near Closter, C. F. Austin (NY00304573); Austin 479, Musci Appalachiani , on rocks along rivulets, palisades, near Closter (Aug., Sept.) (NY00304574, NY00304575) .