Artemisia umbrosa, initially described as A. vulgaris var. umbrosa, is an East Asian species that has been introduced and is now locally naturalized in some European countries. It has a complicated nomenclatural and taxonomic history. The name Artemisia umbrosa has been misapplied to related taxa of Artemisia sect. Artemisia, including A. verlotiorum, and several other names were erroneously applied to that taxon. The authorship of the species was variously cited in earlier literature (as "Turcz. ex DC.", "Turcz. ex Besser", "(Besser) Turcz. ex DC.", "(Turcz. ex DC.) Pamp.", "(Turcz. ex Besser) Pamp.", etc.). We demonstrate here that the basionym A. vulgaris var. umbrosa was first validated in 1832 (not 1834) by Besser. The species-rank combination A. umbrosa was validated not by Pampanini in 1930 but by Verlot in 1875, and thus the proper authorship citation of the name is A. umbrosa (Turcz. ex Besser) Turcz. ex Verlot. Despite the fact that Verlot misapplied the name A. umbrosa to the species later described as A. verlotiorum, his combination is valid and legitimate. Some other names misapplied to A. umbrosa are briefly considered (such as A. codonocephala auct. non Diels, A. dubia auct. non Wall. ex Besser, A. lavandulifolia auct. non DC., nom. illeg., etc.). The lectotype and other available original specimens of A. umbrosa (especially those from the Turczaninow and Besser historical herbaria at KW) are discussed. A brief overview of records of A. umbrosa (reported under several names) in Eastern Europe is provided.
Keywords: alien species, Artemisia, Asteraceae, typification, nomenclature, taxonomy
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