Hebe magellanica Juss.

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 : 51

Hebe magellanica Juss.

Systema naturae 2: 27 ( Gmelin 1791). — Hebe laurentina Comm. , nom. inval. (Art. 30.1; herbarium name).

TYPE CITATION. — Not designated.

LECTOTYPE (designated here). — Chile: “ Strait of Magellan , Commerson, Dec. 1767 ”, P[ P00675461* ].

ISOLECTOTYPES (designated here). — P[ P03520124* , P03520127* , P03520139* ] .

Nomenclatural note. The importance of the specimen is that the genus Hebe was described by Jussieu (1789) attributing the name to Commerson without assigning a species to the genus but commenting on the specimens by Commerson. The first species of Hebe , Hebe magellanica , was described two years later by Gmelin (1791). It is not clear why Gmelin did not pick up the original name Hebe laurentina of Commerson. The genus gained acceptance only after 1921 when Pennell (1921) and then Cockayne & Allan (1926) started transferring the shrubby species of Veronica from New Zealand to the genus. Nowadays, Hebe is considered a section in a wider Veronica again ( Garnock-Jones et al. 2007) but the original species was never lectotypified. It is a synonym of the older V. elliptica G.Forst.