Veronica umbelliformis Pennell

Albach, Dirk C., 2025, From just a few to the most type-rich herbarium for Veronica L. (Plantaginaceae) - The effect of digitization of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle herbarium in Paris, Adansonia (3) 47 (7), pp. 47-130 : 91

Veronica umbelliformis Pennell

Monographs of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 5: 87, fig. 10B ( Pennell 1943).

TYPE CITATION. — India, Uttarakhand: “alpine, 4100 meter altitude, Barji Kong Pass, Kumaun, collected in fruit August 1848, by R. Strachey and J. E. Winterbottom, no. 10 ”.

HOLOTYPE. — “R. Strachey and J. E. Winterbottom. No. 10 […] Barji Kang Kumaon Elevation above the Sea 13500 Feet” GH[ GH00091903 !*].

ISOTYPE (not mentioned in protologue). — BM[ BM 000900925!* ], K[ K001070365 *], P[ P00208414 *], PH[ PH00028892 *].

Nomenclatural note. Veronica umbelliformis was described by Pennell (1943) based on a collection of Strachey and Winterbottom from Barjikang Pass in the Pithoragarh district. Pennell (1943) cited no. 10 of Strachey & Duthie (1906), which is a catalogue number rather than a collection number. However, no. 10 in Strachey & Duthie (1906) is V. javanica . Since no. 9 is V. capitata , a similar species, reported from Barjakang Pass, some confusion seems to have happened. Something similar seems to have happened with no. 4 (P00208415), which is V. ciliata (no. 2 in Strachey & Winterbottom) but is V. beccabunga in Strachey & Duthie (1906). Strachey & Duthie (1906) reported that they distributed the collections to K, BM, LINN and “some foreign museums”, apparently including P. Pennell (1943) reported only one specimen for his V. umbelliformis considered the holotype but there exist several duplicates. Strangely, a label on the specimen in P states that it was given to P by Strachey and Winterbottom in 1843, before the travels to the area by Strachey and Winterbottom (1846-1849; Strachey & Duthie 1906) and the collection date reported by Pennell (1943). There has been some discussion around this name, which is nowadays considered a synonym of V. szechuanica subsp. sikkimensis , the western subspecies of V. szechuanica ( Hong & Fischer 1998) , but they belong to a poorly investigated, heterogeneous group of species ( Buhk et al. 2015).