Redating the arrival of Tropaeolum minus in Italy

Abstract

At a European level, Tropaeolum minus is the first species of this genus that arrived in our continent, around 1570, immediately used as an ornamental, vegetable and pharmaceutical plant. According to Italian sources, instead, T. minus arrived in Italy only in 1642: the species of this genus which was known in Italy at the time was T. majus, imported in 1596. However, in the Italian Renaissance herbaria, there are four specimens dated to the last decades of 1500, clearly recognisable as T. minus, which would confirm its import around 1570. Thanks to the analysis of these herbarium specimens and documental sources of the second half of the XVI century (Ulisse Aldrovandi’s manuscripts and watercolour plates, the lists of species cultivated in that period in the principal Italian botanical gardens, the manuscript code I cinque libri di piante by Pietro Antonio Michiel), it is possible to demonstrate that the arrival of T. minus in Italy has to be redated at the second half of the XVI century. Furthermore, this work allowed the specimens of Tropaeolum preserved in the Erbario Aldrovandi to be identified correctly, which were formerly attributed to T. majus following the Italian scientific literature available so far.

Graphical abstract