Veronica himalensis D.Don

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 : 89

Veronica himalensis D.Don

Prodromus Florae Nepalensis 92 ( Don 1825).

TYPE CITATION. — Nepal: “Hab.in Gosaingsthan Nepalensium”[= Mt. Gosain Than, eastern Nepal]. Wallich.

LECTOTYPE ( designated here). — “403 Valeriana grandiflora Wall in Herb. 1824 Gossain Thain Emodi” K-W[ K001109968 *].

ISOLECTOTYPES ( designated here). — E[ E00313951 !*], G[ G00673293 *], K[ K001070370 *], KW!, P[ P03529480 *].

Nomenclatural note. Veronica himalensis is a tall herb from V. subgen. Stenocarpon . It was described by Don (1825) based on a collection of Wallich from “Gosaingsthan” in Nepal. Don (1825) associated the plant with Wallich no. 403, which is stated to be Valeriana grandiflora from “Gosain Than Emodii” in Wallich (1828). However, this mistake of associating nos 403-405 with Valeriana rather than Veronica was explicitly mentioned by Wallich on his specimen no. 403 (K001109968) and therefore earlier specimens with the incorrect genus name (e.g., K001070370) can be differentiated from later specimens with the corrected genus name, Veronica grandiflora Wall. (e.g., P, G), which is a later homonym of V. grandiflora J.Gaertn. Thus , this specimen must have been among the specimens sent to London prior to the arrival of Wallich’s main herbarium in 1828 ( Candolle & Radcliffe-Smith 1981) but it is not clear who gave the name V. himalensis, Don or Wallich. According to Noltie & Watson (2021), specimens from Gossain Than were likely collected by Bharat Singh in 1821 and reference to 1824 refers to cataloging.