The correct name for an Aquilegia (Ranunculaceae) hybrid of the parentage Aquilegia flavescens × A. formosa

Abstract

Aquilegia × miniana (J.F.Macbr. & Payson) Cronk, hybr. & stat. nov. is the correct name for the hybrid Aquilegia flavescens S.Watson × A. formosa Fisch. & DC. var. formosa. In 1916 Payson and Macbride, while exploring the mountains of Idaho, found populations of Aquilegia that were pink in flower colour and appeared intermediate between the yellow-flowered A. flavescens and red-flowered A. formosa. They named these plants A. flavescens var. miniana J.F.Macbr. & Payson. There has been uncertainty over whether their type collections (in GH, RM, MO, US, E, CM, CAS, NY) do indeed represent hybrids or pink-flowered morphs of A. flavescens. Using a Wells diagram, the holotype (in the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University) is shown to be intermediate, allowing its identification as a clear hybrid. However, some of the isotype material is indistinguishable from A. flavescens. The holotype matches material from British Columbia that has been determined to be of hybrid origin using molecular and morphological data. A. flavescens var. miniana J.F.Macbr. & Payson is, therefore, an available name for the hybrid, which is here raised to the status of hybrid binomial.