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A NEW NAME FOR A SOUTH ASIAN XYLOPIA (ANNONACEAE) SPECIES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2011

I. M. Turner
I. M. Turner*
Affiliation:
Research Associate, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and Research Associate, Singapore Botanic Gardens. Address for correspondence: Fairfield, Pett Level Road, Winchelsea Beach, East Sussex TN36 4ND, UK. E-mail: turner187@btinternet.com

Abstract

Xylopia parvifolia (Wight) Hook.f. & Thomson (Annonaceae), based on Patonia parvifolia Wight, is a tree species native to Sri Lanka and India. Unfortunately the widely used name is an illegitimate later homonym. Xylopia patoniae I.M.Turner is here proposed as an avowed substitute. There have been two proposals to lectotypify Patonia Wight. The earliest, and one to be followed, proposed Patonia parvifolia Wight as the lectotype, maintaining Patonia as a synonym of Xylopia. A later proposal to make Patonia walkeri Wight (≡ Diospyros walkeri (Wight) Gürke) the type has to be disregarded.

Keywords

DiospyroslectotypePatoniaRobert WightSri LankaXylopia

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Edinburgh Journal of Botany , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , November 2011 , pp. 339 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 2011

Introduction

Robert Wight (Reference Wight1838) described the genus Patonia (Annonaceae) and included two species: Patonia parvifolia Wight and P. walkeri Wight, both known to Wight from single specimens from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) received from Colonel G. W. Walker. Wight’s generic name honours Mrs Walker (née Paton). Hooker & Thomson (Reference Hooker and Thomson1855) recognised that Patonia parvifolia belonged in Xylopia L. and transferred it to that genus, noting that Patonia walkeri was a species of Diospyros L. (Ebenaceae). Subsequently, Hiern (Reference Hiern1873) reduced Patonia to a section of Diospyros.

Unfortunately the generally used name for Patonia parvifolia in Xylopia, X. parvifolia (Wight) Hook.f. & Thomson, is a later homonym of a species from Brazil, Xylopia parvifolia Schltdl. In the absence of any synonyms a new name is required for the Asian Xylopia parvifolia. Given Wight’s original intention of honouring Mrs Walker, I provide an avowed substitute for the name with an appropriate epithet. As Noltie (Reference Noltie2005) noted, what has generally been considered the type of Patonia parvifolia in the Kew herbarium is not a specimen from Wight’s personal herbarium, but instead came from that of William Hooker. No material from Wight’s personal herbarium has been traced, but the citation of the Kew specimen as holotype by Huber (Reference Huber and Dassanayake1985) is an effective lectotypification.

Xylopia parvifolia is a tree of lowland forests native to Sri Lanka and southern India (Huber, Reference Huber and Dassanayake1985) and is the only native species of Xylopia in India (Mitra, Reference Mitra, Sharma and Balakrishnan1993).

A Note on the Typification of Patonia Wight

Recently McNeill in Noltie (Reference Noltie2005) selected Patonia walkeri as the lectotype of Patonia, in order that section Patonia was still available for use in Diospyros. However, McNeill did not realise that Van Setten & Maas (Reference Van Setten and Maas1990) had already designated Patonia parvifolia as the lectotype of Patonia, maintaining the identity of Patonia as a synonym of Xylopia in the Annonaceae. However, Diospyros section Patonia can be maintained if it is considered as newly described by Hiern (Reference Hiern1873). The original publication contains no direct reference to Patonia Wight and Hiern’s key to sections provides adequate description to validate the name. Hiern included 11 species in section Patonia and given his choice of name it is appropriate to lectotypify the section with Patonia walkeri. But as recent molecular analyses show little support for traditional infrageneric classifications of the genus (Duangjai et al., Reference Duangjai, Wallnöfer, Samuel, Munzinger and Chase2006), Hiern’s system of subdivision of Diospyros may be of little more than historical interest.

Nomenclature

  • Xylopia L., Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1241, 1250, 1378 (1759). – Type: Xylopia muricata L.

  • Patonia Wight, Ill. Ind. Bot. 1: 18 (1838), non Pattonia Wight (1852) [Orchidaceae]. – Type: Patonia parvifolia Wight (lectotype designated by Van Setten & Maas (Reference Van Setten and Maas1990: 677)).

  • Xylopia patoniae I.M.Turner, nom. nov. – Patonia parvifolia Wight, Ill. Ind. Bot. 1: 19 (1838). – Xylopia parvifolia (Wight) Hook.f. & Thomson, Fl. Ind. 125 (1855), non X. parvifolia Schltdl. (1834). – Xylopicrum parvifolium (Wight) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 8 (1891). – Type: Ceylon, G.W. Walker s.n. (lecto K [ex herb. Hook. (barcode no. K000574727)], designated by Huber (Reference Huber and Dassanayake1985: 65)).

  • Diospyros section Patonia Hiern, Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 12: 146, 152 (1873). – Type: Patonia walkeri Wight (lectotype designated here).

  • Diospyros walkeri (Wight) Gürke, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 4(1): 162 (1891). – Patonia walkeri Wight, Ill. Ind. Bot. 1: 19 (1838), as ‘walkerii’. – Diospyros undulata Wall. ex G.Don var. walkeri (Wight) Bakh., Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg ser. 3, 15(3): 281 (1938). – Type: Ceylon, G.W. Walker s.n. (holo K ex herb. R. Wight prop.).

Acknowledgements

John McNeill’s judicious comments on an earlier version of the paper improved its final form.

References

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