Type stations are vague: many type specimens of California
endemic plants collected long ago cannot be attributed to a specific date or specific
place.
The type specimen of the Santa Cruz tarplant was collected
by David Douglas. In, 1836 DeCandolle
described it as Hemizonia macradenia in Prodromus (“Systematis Naturalis Regni
Vegetabilis”), a 17-volume treatise on botany last updated by his son A. de
Candolle in October 1873.
The protologue statements are: “in Nova California legit cl.
Douglas” and “v. s. comm. ab hon. Soc. hort. Lond.). [recall here that typesetting was then manual
and abbreviations were used prolifically, but not exactly diagnosed: none of
these abbreviations derive specific problems here].
There are three specimens of the original Douglas
collection, two at Key and one at the de Candolle herbarium in Geneva: barcodes K001079845,
K001079846 and G00453655. All three
sheets are attributed to Douglas and to 1833. Based on the narrative detailing Douglas
travels in California (in “California Frontier Naturalists” Biedelman 2006
pages 116-125, the best approximation is that Douglas collected the fall of
1831 and somewhere within a day’s ride of Monterey. The most probable station therefore being in far
northern Monterey County. One proviso is
that H. macradenia is often in peak bloom in September and early October, and
the two Kew specimens are clearly in nice flower. If Douglas had ventured north to Santa Cruz in
the fall of 1831, then no mention is given in Biedelman, hence the type station
is not very probably directly attributed to Santa Cruz county. Accordingly, this raises the possibility that
H. macradenia might have been VERY extensive in northern Monterey County, and since has
contracted significantly. Presently, there is but a singe Monterey County occurrence. Threrefore, Douglas may
have obtained the type somewhere in the vicinity of present day occurrences at
Elkhorn Slough and vicinity.
Based on the narrative in Biedelman (2006) Douglas
specifically visited Santa Cruz in February, 1831, but H. macradenia would not
have been in flower at that time.
Regardless, the type was not likely to have been collected in 1833, because on November
4th, 1833 Douglas only arrived at San Francisco via Ft. Vancouver, having been away from California. Douglas had been at destinations other than
those in the known geographic range of H. macradenia between March 1832 and August
1832, thence he departed San Francisco for the Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) in
November, then returned again, departing the final time at the end of November 1833. Holocarpha
macradenia has never been documented on the San Francisco peninsula.
Accordingly, I attribute the holotype to: Monterey County,
vicinity “Bolsa Neuva Moho Cojo” [36.80023/- 121.71204], David Douglas s.n. , ±September
1831.
