Chapter 7: Linnaean Plant Names and their Types (part G)
Author
Jarvis, Charlie
Department of Botany, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, UK
text
2007
Linnaean Society of London in association with the Natural History Museum
London
Order out of Chaos. Linnaean Plant Types and their Types
529
556
book chapter
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.291971
978-0-9506207-7-0
291971
Gomphrena polygonoides
Linnaeus
,
Species Plantarum
1
: 225. 1753
.
"Habitat in America meridionali." RCN: 1682.
Basionym of:
Illecebrum polygonoides
(L.) L. (1762)
.
Type not designated.
Original material: [icon] in Hermann, Parad. Bat.: 17. 1698; [icon] in Sloane, Voy. Jamaica 1: 141, t. 86, f. 2. 1707.
Current name:
Alternanthera sessilis
(L.)
DC. (
Amaranthaceae
).
Note:
This name had frequently been rejected as a
nomen dubium
(e.g. by Pedersen in
Darwiniana
17: 438. 1967 and Mears & Gillis in
J. Arnold Arbor.
58: 62. 1977) before Mears (in
Taxon
29: 91. 1980) attempted to dispose of the name by typifying it using material in
Herb. Sloane 2: 106 (
BM-SL
)
, which he stated would make it a synonym of
Alternanthera sessilis
(L.)
DC. However, his chosen type is not the material from which
Sloane's
t. 86, f. 2 (which was cited by Linnaeus) was prepared, which is identifiable as
A. paronychioides
A. St.
-Hil. Although
Mears'
intention was laudable, a
neotype
cannot be designated when original material exists (Art. 9.11). It appears that formal rejection of the name may be necessary.