Piper courtallensis P. K. Mukh., 2020

Mukherjee, Prasanta Kumar, 2020, Nomenclatural notes on Piper (Piperaceae) from India III, Phytotaxa 441 (3), pp. 263-273 : 265-266

3. Piper courtallensis P. K. Mukh. nom. nov.

Replaced name: Piper nepalense Wight Icones Ind. Or. 6: 4. t. 1938. 1853 non Miquel. Syst. Piperac.1844: 318. nom. illeg.

Piper argyrophyllum Miquel var. 3. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. India 5: 94.1886. nom. invalid.

Type: — INDIA: Tamilnadu, Courtallum, (lectotype designated here) Wight 964 K ( K000794441 image!) ; syntype Wight 3018 K ( K000794440 image!) .

Plants drying grayish, leaves membranaceous to little coriaceous, ovate elliptic, 6–9 cm × 3–5 cm, prominently to slightly unequal to subequal sided, apex acute, veins 7, two basal lateral veins are short, the upper two pairs converging towards the apex, the two upper most reaching almost to the apex. Spikes are one and half times longer than leaves. Female spikes are slender, not all flowers maturing to fruits; fruits ovate; bracts at the base of the fruits with sinuate margins.

Distribution:— INDIA: Tamilnadu.

Note:— Hooker (1886: 94) described his var. 3 of P. argyrophyllum based on Wight’s Icon. t. 1938. Wight (1853: 4) admitted that the description given by Hooker does not match his illustration no. 1938. The name P. nepalense Wt. is occupied by P.nepalense Miquel (1844: 318) . While P.nepalense ( P. suipigua ) is principally a northern species, occurring in the Himalayas from Uttarakhand, Nepal, Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya in India besides China, P. argyrophyllum is a southern Indian species. Leaves in P. suipigua are more coriaceous, not whitish beneath. It has tomentose inflorescence rachis and bracts which are peltate orbicular. The species differs from P. argyrophyllum , P. kurgianum and P. travancorianum by having larger somewhat coriaceous ovate elliptic 7- nerved leaves which are not whitish beneath, and bracts with raised sinuate margin. Hooker (1886: 94) commented on its resemblance with P. sylvestre Lamarck ( P. lamarckianum ) but the leaf of the latter species is broadly ovate lanceolate with shallowly cordate or rounded unequal base. Piper wightii Miquel has more coriaceous leaves with strong nerves beneath. The specific epithet refers to the type locality.