About the application of the Linnaean name Plantago latifolia (Plantaginaceae)

Plantago Linnaeus (1753: 112) (Plantaginaceae) is a genus including 200–250 species distributed throughout the temperate zone and the high-elevation tropical regions (Rahn 1996, Rønsted et al. 2002). This genus is critical from the taxonomical point of view, showing a high morphological variability and plasticity (Anderson et al. 2013), a reduced number of morphological characters (Rahn, 1996) and a phylogenetic history not completely resolved (Rønsted et al. 2002, Ishikawa et al. 2009, Tay et al. 2010, Meudt 2011). In addition, recently new species were discovered and described (Hassemer & Baumann 2014, Hassemer et al. 2014, Hassemer 2016, Hassemer & Rønsted, 2016), and new combinations were proposed (Hassemer & al., 2015). Also nomenclature of the genus is problematic and several names were recently investigated (Di Pietro et al. 2013, Di Pietro & Iamonico 2014a, 2014b, Iamonico et al. 2017). As part of an ongoing study on the genus Plantago (Di Pietro et al. 2013, Di Pietro & Iamonico, 2014a, 2014b, Hassemer et al. 2017, Iamonico et al. 2017), we present here a note concerning the Linnaean name Plantago latifolia, which appears still untypified and is considered by Jarvis (2007) as a name with uncertain application.