Ricerc@Sapienza

Plantago Linnaeus (1753: 112) (Plantaginaceae Juss.) is a cosmopolitan genus including about 250 species distributed
in the temperate zone and high-elevation tropical regions (Pilger 1937, Rahn 1996, Hassemer et al. 2016). The genus
is taxonomically critical because of its high morphological variability and plasticity, reduced number of diagnostic
characters and a still unresolved phylogenetical history (Rahn 1996, Rønsted et al. 2002).
According to the current concept (Rahn 1996, updated by Rønsted et al. 2002, and Hoggard et al. 2003), Plantago
includes four subgenera, i.e. subg. Bougueria (Decaisne 1836: 132‒133) Rahn (1996: 197), subg. Coronopus (Jussieu
1789: 90) Rahn (1978: 107), subg. Plantago, and subg. Psyllium (Miller 1754: without pagination) Harms & Reiche
(1985: 373) (Rahn 1996, updated by Rønsted et al. 2002 and Hoggard et al. 2003). Subg. Psyllium includes about 70
species which are widely distributed in world.
Linnaeus published twenty-four names under Plantago (see Jarvis 2007) of which three , all belonging to subg.
Psyllium, are not currently typified. These names are: P. afra Linnaeus (1762: 168), P. altissima Linnaeus (1762: 165),
and P. lagopus Linnaeus (1753: 114).
As part of the ongoing study on the genus Plantago (e.g., Di Pietro et al. 2013, Di Pietro & Iamonico 2014a,
2014b, Hassemer et al. 2017, Iamonico et al. 2017), we here present an contribution concerning the three untypified
Linnaean name of subg. Psyllium.