Psychotria serpens Linnaeus (1771: 204)

Turner, I. M. & Kumar, V. S., 2018, Flora of Singapore precursors, 4. A summary of scandent Psychotria (Rubiaceae) in Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia, Phytotaxa 361 (2), pp. 183-197 : 194-195

17. Psychotria serpens Linnaeus (1771: 204)

≡ Grumilea serpens (L.) Schumann (1891: 116) ≡ Uragoga serpens (L.) Kuntze (1891: 301)

Type (lectotype, designated here):— S.loc., s.dat., Anon. s.n. ( LINN [Herb. Linn. 231.2]; possible isolectotype BM barcode BM012558409 )

= Psychotria scandens Hooker & Walker Arnott (1836: 193) . Type (lectotype, designated here):— CHINA, S.dat., F.W. Beechey s.n. (K barcode K000777128 ; possible isolectotype E barcode E00369104 ).

Specimen examined: —PENINSULAR MALAYSIA. Trengganu: Kuala Trengganu, Sebarang Takir Air Field, climber among bushes in glam forest, 18 Nov 1954, J. Sinclair SFN 40501 (K barcode K001273836).

Notes: —This represents a new record for Malaysia. The presence of the species on the East Coast of the Peninsula in Melaleuca forest is not particularly surprising for a species well known from the lowlands and coasts of Thailand, Vietnam and China ( Chen & Taylor 2011). This Linnean name appears not to have been typified before ( Jarvis 2007: 777). There is a good specimen in the Linnean Herbarium, that is annotated with the name by Linnaeus (C. Jarvis, pers. comm.), which is here designated as lectotype. There is also a specimen among a small set of Linnean specimens in BM that Sir James Edward Smith gave to Sir Joseph Banks ( Jarvis 2007: 777). Jarvis (2007: 177) reports that this collection consists of 85 specimens. Savage (1937) listed 83 specimens based on a manuscript among Smith’s papers, but this did not include P. serpens .

Noltie (2010: 155) reported that the original material for P. scandens Hook. & Arn. consists of two specimens, one each in K and E. The slightly better K specimen is here selected as lectotype.