Chapter 7: Linnaean Plant Names and their Types (part M)
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
651
689
book chapter
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.291971
978-0-9506207-7-0
291971
Mimosa asperata
Linnaeus
,
Systema Naturae
, ed. 10, 2
: 1312. 1759
.
["Habitat in Jamaica, Vera cruce."] Sp. Pl., ed. 2, 2: 1507 (1763). RCN: 7687.
Lectotype
(Brenan in Hubbard & Milne-Redhead,
Fl. Trop. E. Africa, Leguminosae
1: 43. 1959): Herb. Linn. No. 1228.32 (
LINN
)
.
Current name:
Mimosa pigra
L.
(
Fabaceae
:
Mimosoideae
).
Note:
Brenan treated 1228.32 (LINN) as the
holotype
, and was followed in this by authors such as Wijnands (
Bot. Commelins
: 151. 1983) and Howard (
Fl. Lesser Antilles
4: 368. 1988). With this typification, Brenan treated
M. asperata
as a synonym of
M. pigra
L. (1755)
. However, Barneby (in Tan,
Davis & Hedge Festschr.
: 140. 1989) rejected
Brenan's
choice in favour of
Miller's
t. 182, f. 3 (1760), wrongly believing the material to post-date the protologue. There appears to be no evidence for this. The Miller plate is identifiable as
M. berlandieri
A. Gray
which, if accepted as the type, would result in
M. asperata
being the earliest name for this taxon, and it is in this sense that Barneby uses
M. asperata
, as does
Baessler
(in
Feddes Repert.
96: 599. 1985). There appear to be no grounds for rejecting
Brenan's
earlier choice of type. However, in a further complication, Barneby (in
Mem. New York Bot. Gard.
65: 437. 1991) argues that
Brenan's
type is identifiable as
M. pellita
Humb. & Bonpl.
, rather than
M. pigra
sensu stricto
.
While it seems clear that the type of
M. asperata
must be 1228.32 (LINN), differences of opinion over its identity mean that
M. asperata
may be treated either as a synonym of
M. pigra
, or as the correct name for what has been known as
M. pellita
.
This is particularly unfortunate because Barneby uses
M. asperata
in a different sense, that of
M. berlandieri
.