Cassia acuruensis Benth., Fl. Bras.

Souto, Flávio Sousa & Agra, Maria De Fátima, 2022, Typifications of ten names related to Senna ser. Interglandulosae (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae), Phytotaxa 547 (2), pp. 186-192 : 187

1. Cassia acuruensis Benth., Fl. Bras. 15(2): 122. 1870.

Type:— BRAZIL. Bahia: “Habitat in silvis Capoeiras deserti s.d. Sertão do Rio S. Francisco in Serra Açuruá, Blanchet 2851 ” (holotype: B†, probably destroyed [photo negative F-1643, image!]; lectotype designated here: G barcode G00370783 [image!]; isolectotypes: F barcode V0057475F [image!], G barcode G00370776 [image!], G barcode G00370791 [image!], K barcode K000056189 [image!], K barcode K000056191[image!]. Lectotype available at: http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/chg/adetail.php?id=276647&base= img&lang=fr

Accepted name. Senna acuruensis (Benth.) H.S. Irwin & Barneby (1982: 508) .

Notes. Cassia acuruensis was described by Bentham (1870: 122) based on the collection Blanchet 2851, without indicating where the specimen was deposited. It is assumed, however, that the holotype was deposited in the Berlin Herbarium (B) [based on a Field Museum of Natural History photograph (F-1643 image)] together the Flora Brasiliensis collection, and were probably destroyed during World War II. When Irwin & Barneby (1982: 508) performed a new combination for Senna , they mistakenly referred to the holotype of the species – a specimen deposited in the Kew Herbarium (K) under barcode K000056189. Our analysis of this specimen revealed that it does not show Bentham’s notes, nor the location of the collection as in the protologue. However, according to Prado et al. (2015), that was a common practice among taxonomists at the time, and he called it an “inadvertent lectotypification”, which must be corrected.

We found eighteen specimens referring to collection Blanchet 2851, distributed in eleven herbaria (BM, BR, F, G, GH, HAL, K, LD, NY, P and W), probably belonging to more than one collection. During detailed analyses of the specimens and the original description, we noted inconsistencies regarding the handwriting and the information contained on the labels of some specimens. We consider here, as constituting part of the Blanchet 2851 collection, the specimens deposited at: the Field Museum of Natural History , under barcode V0057475F; the herbarium of the Conservatoire et Jardin Botanique de la Ville de Geneva (G), under barcodes G00370776, G00370783 and G00370791; and the Herbarium at Kew (K), under barcodes K000056189 and K000056191). All of the specimens are in good condition, with leaves and flowers, characters used in its original description. We are designating here as the lectotype the specimen deposited at G, under barcode G00370783, which has label annotations that coincide with data from protologue and, according to Thiers (2021), it is where the main Blanchet collections were deposited.