The Diversity of the Epithet “dshorochensis”

In 1849, Karl Koch published the name Quercus dshorochensis, now a synonym for Quercus petraea subsp. polycarpa (Schur) Soó, in his arttcle Beiträge zu einer Flora des Orients ("Contributions to a Flora of the Orient")¹. For habitat he notes “Im Tschoruk – oder Dschoroch – Gebiete auf sekundärem Kalk, auf Porphyr und Melaphyr, 1000 - 4000' hoch“ ("In Tschoruk – or Dschoroch – in areas of secondary limestone, of porphyry and melaphyre, elevation: 1000 - 4000 feet").

Elsewhere in the article he wrote: "Unterhalb der Mündung des Oltissu durchbricht der Tschoruk das pontische Gebirge, und nimmt von nun an eine nördliche Richtung an" (Below the mouth of the Oltissu, the Choruk breaks through the Pontic Mountains and from then on assumes a northerly direction").

Was he wrong to write the epithet—meaning "from Choroch"—with an initial "dsh" while in the geographic description he writes Dschoroch with "dsch"? Not quite sure. The spelling has many variations. The spelling with "dsch" is found especially in German-language publications². By the way, the river Çoruh has many spelling variants: Ch'orokhi, Chorokhi, Tchorok, Churuk, or Chorokh, and even alternative names: Akampsis or Acampsis, and Boas.

So it seems that the epithet dshorochensis is correct (i.e., original). But a number of variants have appeared throughout the publications about oaks.

Kotschy (1862): Quercus dschorochensis (Eich. Eur. Orient. 39)

A.DC. (1864): Quercus robur subsp. sessilifora var. dshorochensis (Podr. 16 (2) 9)

Boiss. (1879): Quercus pseudodchorochensis and Quercus sessiliflora var. tchorochensis (Fl. Orient. 4:1165)

Albov (1895): Quercus sessiliflora var. tchorokhensis (Prodr. Fl. Colchic. 218)

Medw. (1908): Quercus sessiliflora var. dshorochensis (Vĕstn. Tiflissk. Bot. Sada 11: 20)

O.Schwarz (1937): Quercus dshorochensis var. kochii (including two formae) and Quercus dshorochensis var. kotschyi  (Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Sonderbeih. D 65, 66)

Stoj. & Stef. (1948): Quercus sessiliflora var. dshorochensis (Fl. Bulg., ed. 3: 329) (not seen)

Menitsky  (1968): Quercus petraea subsp. dshorochensis. (Novosti Sist. Vyssh. Rast. 5:88)

Wenzig (1886): Quercus dshorochensis (Jahrb. Königl. Bot. Gart. Berlin 4: 182)

By the way, they are all synonyms of Quercus petraea subsp. polycarpa (Schur) Soó (1943)

References

Albov, N.M. 1895. Prodromus Hlorae Colchicae. Geneve: Tiflis.

Boissier, E., 1867–1884. Flora Orientalis. Vols 1-5. Basileae, Genevae & Lugduni.

de Candolle, A. P. 1864–1873. Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis, sive, Enumeratio contracta ordinum generum specierumque plantarum huc usque cognitarium, juxta methodi naturalis, normas digesta 17 vols. Paris: Treuttel et Würtz.

Kotschy, K.G.T. 1858–1862. Die Eichen Europa’s und des Orient’s. Wien & Olmüz

Medwedew, J. S. 1908. Дубы Кавказа. Вестн. Тифл. бот. сада. вып. 11.[In Russian] (Oaks of the Caucasus. Vi͡estnik Tiflisskago botanicheskago sada no. 11)

Menitsky, Y.L. 1968. Obzor roburoidnykh i gallifernykh dubov Kavkaza. Novosti Sist. Vyssh. Rast. 5: 87. [In Russian] (Review of the roburoid and galliferous oaks of the Caucasus)

Schwarz, O. 1937. Monographie der Eichen Europas und des Mittelmeergebiets. Feddes Repert. Sonderbeih. D, 1–200.

Stojanov, N., Stefanov, B. 1948. Flora na Bălgarija. Sofiya. (Stojanov N., Stefanov B., 1948. Flora of Bulgaria. Sofia.)

Wenzig, T. 1886: Die Eichen Europas, Nordafrikas und des Orients. Jahrbuch des Königlichen botanischen Gartens und des botanischen Museums zu Berlin 4: 179 - 213.

Wikipedia contributors. Çoruh [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2021 Jan 14, 15:30 UTC [cited 2021 Jan 30]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C3%87oruh&oldid=1000303618.