Acalypha pittieri Pax & Hoffmann (1924: 18)

Muñoz-Rodríguez, Pablo, Cardiel, José María & Atha, Daniel, 2014, Acalypha subgenus Linostachys (Euphorbiaceae, Acalyphoideae): a global review, Phytotaxa 166 (3), pp. 199-221 : 211

22. Acalypha pittieri Pax & Hoffmann (1924: 18) . Lectotype (designated here): — COSTA RICA. Puntarenas: Cocos Island, Wafer Bay , 10 m, January 1902, H. Pittier 16246 ( GH 45397 !).

Distribution:— America. Central America: Costa Rica (Cocos Island).

References:— Standley (1937: 600), Seymour (1979: 166), Burger & Huft (1995: 52), Govaerts et al. (2000: 74), Martínez-Gordillo et al. (2006: 4), Trusty et al. (2006: 304), CONABIO (2009), González (2010).

Notes:— Acalypha pittieri is only known from the original collection. The B herbarium specimen was probably destroyed during the Berlin herbarium fire in 1943 ( Hiepko 1987); a negative is preserved (F 126208!). We designate as lectotype the only extant specimen known, from GH. Burger & Huft (1995) place this species as a synonym of Acalypha macrostachya Jacquin (1797: 245) , a widespread species not belonging to subgenus Linostachys . This concept is followed by Govaerts et al. (2000) and Martínez-Gordillo et al. (2006). Trusty et al. (2006) cite another collection of A. pittieri (Stewart 300 from CAS herbarium). They present a drawing based on the collection, although it is confusing and it may not be A. pittieri . We could not study the Stewart collection which, in fact, does not appear in the catalogue of CAS (available at http://collections.calacademy.org/bot/; last review February 2014). The specimen, Pittier 16246, is quite similar to A. muelleriana . However, we prefer to accept both species until we can study more recent material.