Commelina diffusa Burman (1768: 18

Hassemer, Gustavo, 2020, Further cleaning of the name pool in the New World Commelina (Commelinaceae), and notes on the African C. aquatica, Phytotaxa 435 (2), pp. 101-132 : 104-109

1.4. Commelina diffusa Burman (1768: 18 , t. 7[2])

Type: — INDIA. Coromandel, s.d., D. Outgaerden s.n. (lectotype [designated by Rao 1964: 179] G-00360106!).

= Commelina formosa Graham (1830: 366–367)

Type: — UNITED KINGDOM. Scotland: Edinburgh, cultivated at the Royal Botanic Garden, from seeds collected around Lima, Peru, by Cruckshank, 1830, Anonymous s.n. (lectotype [designated here] E-00373670! [ Figure 3 ]).

= Commelina pilosula Richard (1792: 106)

Type: — FRANCE. French Guiana, 1792, J. B. Leblond 408 (lectotype [designated here] [or maybe holotype, see discussion below] G-00341814! [ Figure 4 ]).

= Nephralles parviflora Rafinesque (1837: 70) (syn. nov.)

Type: — UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Kentucky: s.d., Anonymous s.n. (lectotype [designated here] P-00752548! [ Figure 5 ]).

Notes: —The protologue of C. formosa ( Graham 1830: 366–367) provided the following information on provenance: “The seeds of this very pretty species were gathered by Mr Cruckshanks in the valley of Lima, and communicated to me last spring. The plants flowered freely in the greenhouse in July”. I was able to locate only one original specimen (E-00373670— Figure 3 ), which I designate here as lectotype.

The protologue of C. pilosula ( Richard 1792: 106) provided no information on provenance or collector, but the work in which it is included (i.e. Richard 1792) indicated that the original material of C. pilosula was collected by Jean- Baptiste Leblond in French Guiana in 1792. I was able to locate only one original specimen (G-00341814— Figure 4 ), which I designate here as lectotype. If it could be demonstrated that this specimen was the only element on which Louis Claude Marie Richard based his description of C. pilosula , this specimen would be a holotype. Nevertheless, I am in no position to ascertain this, especially considering that a number of specimens originally sent by Leblond that were studied by Richard are seemingly lost. Therefore, I conservatively opt to designate the specimen G-00341814 as lectotype.

The protologue of Nephralles parviflora ( Rafinesque 1837: 70) provided the following information on provenance: “ Kentucky and Tennessee ”. I was able to locate only one original specimen (P-00752548— Figure 5 ), which I designate here as lectotype. This specimen was, according to information written on a label on the sheet, sent to P in 1868 by Elias Durand, and is one of the few remaining representatives of the now mostly lost Rafinesque herbarium. Nephralles parviflora is here newly proposed as a synonym of C. diffusa .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Lectotype of Commelina formosa (Anonymous s.n., E-00373670). Copyright: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

FIGURE 4. Lectotype of Commelina pilosula (J.B. Leblond 408, G-00341814). Copyright: Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève. Available online at: https://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/chg/adetail.php?id=465302

FIGURE 5. Lectotype of Nephralles parviflora (Anonymous s.n., P-00752548). Copyright: Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Available online at: https://science.mnhn.fr/institution/mnhn/collection/p/item/p00752548