The vascular plants of the Iberian Península in the Clusius's works: the seeds sent from Sevilla to Leiden

Abstract

Before 1575 Carolus Clusius visited Spain and Portugal, in what can be considered the first extensive botanical collection trip for the Iberian Peninsula. He published in 1576 Rariorum aliquot stirpium per Hispanias observatarum historia, mainly based on materials collected during that expedition. The content of this book was later merged with additional information to créate a more comprehensive work dealing with the whole European flora, Rariorum plantarum historiae, published in 1601. An important element in the generation of this second book was the collaboration of Simón de Tovar, from Seville, who contributed with shipments of seeds and bulbs to Clusius. Thanks to Tovar, the number of plants recorded in Rar. stirp. hispan, hist, was increased with some remarkable examples in Rar. pl. hist. It is particularly interesting to note that at that moment American plants were a great novelty and Seville was the gate for the introduction of most of them, i.e. Sprekelia formosissima (L.) Herbert [• Amaryllis formosissima L.] or Psidium guajava L. A reconstruction of Clusius itinerary based on the collection localities is given in this paper. A discussion of the correspondence between both botanists, including a critical list of the plants sent to Leiden by Tovar is presented.

Keywords

• botany history
• clusius
• tovar
• 16th century
• vascular plants
• iberian península
• leiden
• sevilla