Leandra cogniauxiana Reginato, 2018

Reginato, Marcelo & Goldenberg, Renato, 2018, Taxonomic notes on Leandra (Melastomataceae, Miconieae) - II, Phytotaxa 371 (2), pp. 84-92 : 85-86

1. Clidemia atrata Spring in Martius (1837: 78). ≡ Miconia atrata (Spring) Wawra in Wawra & Maly (1863: 89).

Type:— BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro, “montem Gavia”, C.F.P. Martius s.n. [herb. 23] (lectotype M-

0165378! designated here, isolectotypes M-0165379!, K-535981!, NY-221529!).

= Leandra pubescens var. tomentosa Cogniaux (1886: 188) . Type:— BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro: A.F.M. Glaziou 1268 (lectotype BR-5196067! designated here, isolectotype K-535661!). Syn. nov.

Specimens examined:— BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro, F.B. Matos 2061 (NY). São Paulo: Cubatão, A. Gehrt s.n. (SP 17201); Santo André, F.C. Hoehne s.n. (SPF 72017).

Clidemia atrata is a sparsely collected species that is somehow hard to assign to a precise genus (following the traditional circumscriptions). Apart from the difficulty brought by the fact that the big genera in tribe Miconieae (i.e. Miconia , Leandra , Clidemia and Ossaea ) are not monophyletic ( Michelangeli et al. 2004, Goldenberg et al. 2008), this species has a set of characters that had lead its original description to Clidemia , its treatment in the “Flora Brasiliensis” (Cogniaux 1888) as Miconia , and its phylogenetic position, based on molecular markers, among species of Leandra s.str. ( Reginato & Michelangeli 2016). Recent works have been treating it in Clidemia ( Matsumoto & Martins 2009, Michelangeli & Reginato 2015). This whole scenario may explain why Cogniaux (1888) may have been misled on describing these two specimens as a variety in a species of Leandra . Since he did not see flowers in both syntypes, as stated in the original description, he could not ascertain if the apex of the petals was rounded, as in Clidemia , or acute, as in Leandra . Apart from that, the lectotype of this variety perfectly matches old and recent collections of C. atrata .

As for the type of C. atrata , there are two specimens labeled as Martius 23 in M. Since we cannot be sure about which one was seen by Spring (1837), the choice has been random. The second syntype of Leandra pubescens var. tomentosa (Peters 1335, at LE) has not been located.

2. Leandra cogniauxiana Reginato , nom. nov. ≡ Ossaea cogniauxii D’El Rei Souza (2002: 14) . Type:— BRAZIL. Minas Gerais: Santa Bárbara, Serrinha de Santa Bárbara, A.F.M. Glaziou 19324 (holotype P-1168065!, isotypes BR-5640812!, K-589550!, P-1168064!).

Ossaea cogniauxii D’El Rei Souza was recently combined to Leandra by Reginato (2016), rendering an illegitimate name, since Leandra cogniauxii (D’El Rei Souza) Reginato (2016: 41) is a posterior homonym of Leandra cogniauxii Ule [1915: 367 ; = Sandemania hoehnei ( Cogniaux 1912: 9) Wurdack (1970: 370) ]. Therefore, a new name for this species is proposed here. The description, illustrations and distribution map of L. cogniauxiana are available in Reginato (2016).