Page 16 - The Black Range Naturalist Vol. 4, No. 3

Penstemon spinulosus
by Bob Barnes
John Hubbard’s article on this topic in the October 2020 issue is a wonderful example of part of the scientific process - that part which is about questioning, about testing the known, about clarity. He distilled the issue(s) surrounding a Penstemon spinulosus specimen collected in New Mexico down to its core and refused to find an answer when the available information did not provide an answer. He suspected that the specimen might have been mislabeled as to where it was collected.
I knew that I could not add anything to the botanical taxonomy question, but everything else just seemed like a good mystery. So I went exploring, knowing that the digital world had grown immensely since Hubbard wrote the original article. The first step in the process was to track down the type specimen, which is shown on the following page.
The specimen sheet indicates that the specimen was collected in the Santa Magdalena Mountains of New Mexico during June 1881 by G. R. Vasey. This information is found on the lower right of the sheet.
Wooton and Standley described the specimen as Penstemon spinulosus in 1913. That this is the specimen used is confirmed by the handwritten note above the U. S. National Herbarium stamp on the lower right of the sheet.
David D. Keck used this specimen to determine that the plant was properly described as Penstemon heterophyllus Lindl. subsp. spinulosus in 1931. The annotation label at the center bottom of the specimen sheet documents this determination.
In 1941, F. W. P. annotated the sheet (lower left) noting that the specimen was apparently from Marin County, California and was probably collected by G. R. Vasey in 1880.
Enlargements of these notations are shown following the specimen sheet.
The second step in my exploration was to determine if G. R. Vasey was collecting in the Magdalena Mountains in June 1881.
G. R. Vasey, based on a review of his personal correspondence, was in Washington, D. C., during June 1881.
In correspondence to Prof. Sereno Watson, dated July 28, 1881, he noted that he had sent (to Watson) some
specimens his son had collected in New Mexico. (See below.)
I conducted a specimen sheet search in an attempt to determine if Vasey (father or son) was collecting in the Magdalena Mountains in 1881 (or 1880). G. R. Vasey was an authority on grasses, and I found the specimen sheet shown on page 18 without too much difficulty. It is the type specimen for Poa arida. It confirms (something) and confuses in its own right. The notations at the bottom of this specimen sheet are shown on page 20. They indicate that the specimen was collected at Socorro, New Mexico in May 1881 by G. R. Vasey.
The Poa arida specimen sheet demonstrates that G. R. Vasey was collecting in the Magdalena Mountains in the summer of 1881.
Three species are represented on this specimen sheet (causing me some angst at first). At the top center of the specimen sheet one of the three species is identified as P. californica. Since I am not a botanist, that is not what excited me. Nay, it was the fact that it was collected by S. B. & W. F. Parish from San Bernardino. They had collected the specimen in the San Gorgonio Mountains of Southern California in April 1882.
This may indicate that specimens were being intermingled, both in terms of collectors and collection locations.
15