Twentieth century vascular plant taxonomy in Portugal

Abstract

We discuss the development of, and trends in, vascular plant taxonomy in Portugal during the 20th century, with emphasis on the institutions and taxonomists that were instrumental in advancing and facilitating this branch of scientific botanical endeavour. We show that the bulk of the nomenclatural novelties published by Portuguese botanists for elements of the vascular flora of the country, and beyond, were produced by a small group of 69 taxonomists who were mostly based at institutions in one of three Portuguese cities: Coimbra, Lisboa (Lisbon) and Porto. In all three instances the individuals were associated with local herbaria that were managed by universities, while in Lisboa other government-sponsored projects and institutions additionally played a pivotal role in the production of complete or partial Floras for Portugal and its former colonies. These individuals are comprehensively tabulated and biographical information is provided for all of them. With 440 names published, Rosette Mercedes Saraiva Batarda Fernandes (1916-2005), who worked at the University of Coimbra, was the most prolific taxonomist in terms of publishing new names. She was the sole author of more than half of these names. Biographies are provided for the ten most prolific Portuguese authors of vascular plant names.

Flávio Ferreira Pinto de Resende (1907–1967): A portuguese scientist and hero‐botanist, and his forays into systematics

“…Both Resende and Fernandes became accomplished cytogeneticists (karyology and cytotaxonomy). However, while Resende had more eclectic research interests, and his subjects were mostly succulent plants, especially the southern African rosulate, succulent‐leaved alooids and Madagascan Crassulaceae, Fernandes, who was eventually to become the director of the Instituto Botânico at the University of Coimbra from 1942–1974, focussed on Narcissus L., the well‐known daffodils of the flori‐ and horticultural trades (Fernandes, ; Figueiredo & al., ).…”

“…In 1910 changes were introduced in higher education in Portugal that inter alia saw the establishment of the University of Lisbon, which had a Faculty of Science into which the Escola Politécnica de Lisboa was absorbed. The Politécnica dated from 1837 and its Herbarium (LISU) from 1839 (Figueiredo & al., ). In 1943 Flávio Resende became only the third director of the Instituto Botânico de Lisboa, an institution of the University of Lisbon.…”

Nomenclature and typification of Phoenix senegalensis (Arecaceae)

“…In the protologue, the type was indicated as “Palma Horto Botanico Olissiponense”. The herbaria and types of both Amaral‐Franco and Carvalho‐e‐Vasconcellos are at LISI (Menezes, ; Figueiredo & al., ). We searched LISI for original material.…”

An appraisal of the Mozambique types and endemic taxa in the Pires de Lima plant collection at the Porto Herbarium (PO, MHNC-UP)

“…Some of the Pires de Lima specimens are type specimens of lichens or vascular plants from Mozambique referred to in the works of Vainio and Pires de Lima (Vainio 1930;Pires de Lima 1921, 1922, 1924Paz-Bermúdez 2004), published in the Portuguese scientific journals available at the time, which contained much taxonomic content (Boletim da Sociedade Broteriana and Brotéria journals). Pires de Lima is known to have published at least 20 vascular plant names during the period between 1921 and 1924 (Figueiredo et al 2018).…”