Duranta stenostachya Todaro (1860: 26)

Pablo, Moroni & Nataly, O’Leary, 2016, Typification of names in the genus Duranta (Duranteae, Verbenaceae), Phytotaxa 266 (2), pp. 91-102 : 96-97

Duranta stenostachya Todaro (1860: 26)

Type (neotype, designated here):—[LOCATION UNKNOWN]. Orto Botanico di Palermo, A. Todaro s.n. ( PAL No. 102.506 [digital image!]), Fig. 3.

Protologue citation:—“Questa specie è stata lungo tempo coltivata nel Real Orto col nome di Duranta Plumeri , poichè a quanto pare la determinazione delle specie di questo genere erasi fatta secondo lo Sprengel.”

Notes:—The specimen housed at PAL whose label reads “ Duranta stenostachya / D. Plumierii” matches both the name under which Todaro’s species D. stenostachya was cultivated in the botanical garden, and the calligraphy of the author. This specimen shares all the morphological features described in the protologue so it is here selected as a neotype.

Sanders (1989) said the type of this species is a plate presented in the work published by Todaro in 1860. It is worth mentioning that this work does not have any plate and that this drawing was published by Todaro in a later work (1875: 9, Tab. III). The plate which Sanders referred to as type is not suitable because it was published after the protologue therefore it is not original material. (Art. 9.3 of the ICN, McNeill et al. 2012).

Concerning the original location of this species there are different opinions. There is no reference to the place of origin in the protologue, but Todaro said in a later work that this plant came from Brazil (1875). Bailey (1949) also mentions that it is native to Brazil. However, there are no records of D. stenostachya in Brazil until today. Caro (1956) is the first author that points out Martinica as a possible distribution. More recently, Sanders (1989) and AcevedoRodriguez & Strong (2012) indicate the species is endemic to Lesser Antilles.