Veronica anisophylla K.Koch

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 : 69

Veronica anisophylla K.Koch

Linnaea 17: 287 ( Koch 1843).

TYPE CITATION. — Armenia, Schirak: “in Armenia occidentali”.

NEOTYPE (designated here). — [Illustration in] Riek, Repertorium specierum novarum regni vegetabilis 79: fig. 19 ( Riek 1935).

Nomenclatural note. The final collection by Aucher-Éloy used as type, is no. 2531 from Armenia. Koch (1843) described Veronica anisophylla from western Armenia, which was subsequently taken up by Bentham (1846) citing not just the collection by Koch but also by Aucher-Éloy (no. 2531). Later, Koch (1849) rejected the idea that these two collections are conspecific and described V. benthamii based on the Aucher-Éloy collection. Karl Koch was based in Jena when he travelled the orient and wrote the description of the species, getting a permanent position as botanist at the Berlin Botanical Garden only four years later ( Stafleu & Cowan 1979). Boissier (1879) synonymized V. benthamii with V. peduncularis . Römpp (1928) and Riek (1935) later confirmed that V. anisophylla is conspecific with V. orientalis based on original material in Berlin. Since it was not found in the herbarium, it is likely that the collections of V. anisophylla in Berlin were destroyed in World War II. This specimen was, however, illustrated by Riek (1935: abb. 19) and fits to the description by Koch (1843). Therefore, the photo is chosen as neotype. The plant differs from typical V. orientalis in being glabrous (usually eglandular pubescent, rarely subglabrous in V. orientalis ), leaves of the vegetative apex not markedly different and a reddish flower (blue to lilac in V. orientalis ). Nevertheless, confusion with another species is not possible and it is, therefore, regarded here as an extreme variety of that polymorphic and polyphyletic species ( Sonibare et al. 2014).