Typifications of Rhynchospora hookeri Boeck., Rhynchospora longisetis R. Br. and Rhynchospora rubra (Lour.) Makino (Cyperaceae)
Author
Dey, Sangita
Central National Herbarium, BotanicalSurvey ofIndia, Howrah, 711 103, India.
sangitabsi@gmail.com
Author
Prasanna, Parigi Venkateswara
Deccan Regional Centre, BotanicalSurvey ofIndia, Hyderabad, 500 048, India.
text
Candollea
2012
2012-07-01
67
1
45
50
journal article
3134
10.15553/c2012v671a6
f42652d2-5974-4cc4-afad-d98a87886aee
2235-3658
5752222
2.
Rhynchospora longisetis
R. Br.
,
Prodr.: 230. 1810
.
Lectotypus
(designated here): “
Nova Hollandia
”, s.d.,
Banks
s
.n.
(
BM
[
000901440
]!(
Fig. 2
).
Robert Brown, while describing
R. longisetis
,
mentioned only
“Littora Novae Hollandiae intra tropicum, tam orientalia quam septentrionalia, quorum ptiora, praesertim in vicinitate Endeavour River, et Bay of Inlets, ab Illust. Banks primùm explorata, nuper a Sandy Cape ad insulas Cumberland Isles dictas, necnon septentrionalium Carpentaria et Arnhem’s Land in expeditione suprà memoratâ lustravi”.
Thus, according to Brown, this species is based on Banks collection from “Nova Hollandia” without any specific collection number. However, the type specimen of this species at BM, annotated by R. Brown as
R. longisetis
,
has the collection number
5993
.
CLARKE (1908)
cited “R. Brown no. 5993 p.p. collected from North Australia” as one of the syntypes of
R. marginata
C. B. Clarke.
KUKENTHAL (1949)
replaced the name of
R. marginata
Kük.
(because it is a later homonym of
R. marginata
Steud.
) for
R. submarginata
and again cited “R. Brown no. 5993 p.p. as the type of
R. submarginata
Kükenth.
”. Therefore, it seems when
CLARKE (1908)
studied the specimen “R. Brown no. 5993”, it was a mixture of two species,
R. longisetis
and
R. submarginata
(=
R. marginata
C. B. Clarke
). Since the specimen “R. Brown no. 5993” is now associated with two species, the BM specimen is selected as lectotype of
R. longisetis
.
The collection number
5993
was assigned to
R. longisetis
in the mid 1870s when Robert Brown’s collection of dried Australian plants dating from 1801-1805 was first catalogued at the British Museum (
GROVES & MOORE, 1989
;
MOORE & BEASLEY, 1997
). This catalogue, nowadays called Bennett Register was instigated after Brown’s death by J. J. Bennett who had been Brown’s assistant at the museum. J. J. Bennett numbered the angiosperms from
2001
to
6371
and
Cyperaceae
members were numbered from
5288
to
6087
(http://florabase. dec. wa.gov.au/brown/). Therefore, although Robert Brown did not attribute any collection number to
Rhynchospora longisetis
, the number
5993
proposed by J. J. Bennett got associated with it during cataloging and hence needs to be mentioned during lectotype designation of this species.