Cnidoscolus texanus (Müll.Arg.) Small, Fl. S.E. U. S.

Maya-Lastra, Carlos A. & Steinmann, Victor W., 2018, A Nomenclator of Cnidoscolus (Euphorbiaceae), Phytotaxa 346 (1), pp. 1-30 : 20

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.346.1.1
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/933BF637-7E3A-FFC3-5CEC-D51AFCE35442
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Cnidoscolus texanus (Müll.Arg.) Small, Fl. S.E. U. S.
status

Treatment

90. Cnidoscolus texanus (Müll.Arg.) Small, Fl. S.E. U. S. View in CoL : 706 (1903).— Jatropha texana Müll.Arg., Linnaea 34: 211

(1865).— Bivonea texana (Michx.) House , New York State Mus. Bull. 223–224: 61 (1920 publ. 1921). Type:— UNITED

STATES, Texas: Houston , July 1843, F. Lindheimer 178 (lectotype G-00434347!, designated here; isolectotypes BM-

000820511, BRIT-55164!, G-DC-00319808!, GH-00047011!, GH-00047012!, K-000254120!, K-000254121!, P-

00545629!, P-00545630!)

Cnidoscolus herbaceus (L.) I.M.Johnst., Contr. Gray Herb. 68: 86 (1923).— Jatropha herbacea L., Sp. Pl. 2: 1007 (1753), syn. nov. Type:— MEXICO. Veracruz: without locality, without date, W. Houstoun s.n. (lectotype BM-000820496!, designated here).

Distribution:— Mexico, United States.

Notes:— Müller (1865) cited two specimens in the protologue of Jatropha texana : “ Lindheimer 178! and Matthes 285.” We have chosen the Lindheimer 178 collection at G as lectotype because it is more complete ; additionally, there are duplicates in several herbaria.

There is no doubt that Cnidoscolus herbaceus and C. texanus are synonyms. Although the former name has nomenclatural priority, it has been generally neglected or misapplied, with most authors treating it as a synonym of C. urens (e.g., Müller 1866, Govaerts et al. 2000). However, we disagree with this synonymization because the type of C. herbaceus has dentate and variegated stimulose leaves, whereas C. urens has leaves that are entire and non-variegated. In contrast to the sporadic and inconsistent application of C. herbaceus , C. texanus has a widespread and consistent use since it was first described and appears in scores of publications. For this reason we believe that C. texanus should be conserved over C. herbaceous and are in the process of preparing a proposal for conservation for consideration by the International Association of Plant Taxonomists (IAPT).