Ficus palmicida Pittier (1937: 69)

Pederneiras, Leandro Cardoso, Mitidieri-Rivera, Nicole, Romaniuc-Neto, Sergio & Mansano, Vidal De Freitas, 2021, Typification of Ficus sect. Americanae (Moraceae): F. aurea and F. pertusa complexes, Phytotaxa 514 (2), pp. 149-157 : 152

Ficus palmicida Pittier (1937: 69)

Lectotype (designated by Berg & DeWolf 1975):— VENEZUELA. Guárico, La Cruz Rubiera, 12 April 1927, H. F.Pittier 12324 (lectotype: NY00025330 !; isolectotypes: A00034530 !, US00090198!, VEN393 !)

Nomenclatural notes:— In the protologue it is not mentioned the herbarium in which the type of Pittier 12324 was allocated. According to the code (Art. 7.11, note 2, ex. 13), when the herbarium was not mentioned, all specimens of that gathering are syntypes and, therefore, a lectotype must be designated. Berg & DeWolf (1975) were the first to name the material deposited in the NY herbarium as the lectotype (in that work as “isotype”) and, therefore, must be followed ( Turland et al. 2018, Art. 7.11). Berg & Villavicencio (2004) and Berg (2007) cite the VEN collection as a type (in these works as “ holotype ”), but this must be corrected to the designation of Berg & DeWolf (1975). The duplicate deposited at VEN has a label and a stamp called “ Holotype ”, however, according to the code, the designation of a type is achieved only by effective publication (Art. 7.10). The code also warns that some of the material used by an author to describe a taxon may not be in the author’s herbarium (Art. 9A.1). Although Pittier (1937, Introduction) says that many materials have been accumulated in the VEN herbarium, it is not possible to be sure that the type belongs to the herbarium. There are cases in Pittier’s work that the types were not found at VEN (ex.: Ficus corpulenta Pittier [1943: 257] , Pederneiras et al. 2018).

Taxonomical note:— Ficus palmicida was synonymized by Berg (2007) as F. pertusa .