Aristolochia championii Merr. & Chun (1940: 47)

Do, Truong Van, Neinhuis, Christoph & Wanke, Stefan, 2015, Validation of the name Aristolochia compressicaulis and lectotypification of A. championii and A. punjabensis (Aristolochiaceae), Phytotaxa 221 (2), pp. 198-200 : 198

Aristolochia championii Merr. & Chun (1940: 47)

Replaced synonym:— Aristolochia longifolia Champion ex Bentham (1854: 116) , nom. illeg., non Roxburgh (1832: 490). Type (lectotype, designated here):— CHINA. Hong Kong: J.G. Champion 155 (K000978969!).

Note:—When Bentham (1854) described A. longifolia , he did not indicate the holotype. The epithet “ longifolia ” was earlier used for A. longifolia Roxburgh (1832: 490) from India, which itself is a synonym of A. moluccana Duchartre (1864: 438) . Thus, A. longifolia Champ. ex Benth. was illegitimate. Later, Merrill & Chun (1940) proposed the replacement name A. championii named after the collector J.G. Champion, without designation of a type. Ma (1989) selected the specimen “ Westland s.n. ” at K as type of this species and thus effectively lectotypified the name. However, choosing the specimen “ Westland s.n. ” was an error because the original description by Bentham (1854) was based on Champion’s collections, from which a lectotype must be chosen. Notably, the specimens “ Westland s.n. ” (K000978992 and K000978993) previously were designated as (syn)types of A. westlandii Hemsley (1885: 286) . We traced a specimen among the collections at K, labelled as “ J.G. Champion 155 ”, collected from Hong Kong Island, consisting of a leafy and flowering branch that fits Bentham’s protologue. Hence, this specimen is here designated as lectotype for the name A. longifolia Champ. ex Benth.