Gunnera herteri Osten (1932: 33–34

Hassemer, Gustavo, 2019, Notes on Gunnera (Gunneraceae) in Brazil and Uruguay, Phytotaxa 388 (2), pp. 192-200 : 197

Gunnera herteri Osten (1932: 33–34 , figs. 2–4)

Type: — URUGUAY. ROCHA: Santa Teresa , 10 m, November 1931, W. G. F. Herter 1523 (lectotype [designated here] MVM-2766 barcode MVM0000293 ! [ Fig. 1 ]; isolectotypes F-864931 barcode V0060647 F!, G-00355779!, GH-00063252!, HBG-517594!, NY-00236584!) .

Distribution: —along the coast in eastern Uruguay (Rocha department) and southern Brazil, in Rio Grande do Sul and southern Santa Catarina states.

Habitat: —humid patches among the restingas (coastal vegetation on sandy soil) (see Falkenberg 1999).

Conservation status: —Vulnerable (VU–B2[a,b{iii}]). Extent of Occurrence (EoO): 7,710.080 km 2; Area of Occupancy (AoO): 32.000 km 2. This species is restricted to a very specific type of environment (humid patches among the restingas), which is spatially rare and highly threatened with both legal and illegal urban advance along the coast. Because only ca. 10 populations are recorded (some of which might no longer be extant), and due to the ongoing trend of decline of its environment ( Falkenberg 1999, Hassemer et al. 2015), the species is here assessed as Vulnerable.

Notes: —The protologue of G. herteri ( Osten 1932: 33–34) cited the following gathering: “ URUGUAY, Dep. Rocha, Santa Teresa, in arenosis humidis subhumosis inter litus arenosum maris (“dunas”) et paludes interiores Nov. 1931 legit Dr. G. Herter”. Because Cornelius Osten did not inform the institution or collection where the type was kept, a holotype was not designated for this name ( McNeill 2014). I was able to locate the following syntypes (Art. 9.6 of the ICN): F-864931, G-00355779, GH-00063252, HBG-517594, MVM-2766 and NY-00236584, all of them agreeing with the information provided in the protologue and clearly belonging to the same species. I designate the specimen MVM-2766 ( Fig. 1 ) as lectotype, because it is kept at MVM, the collection where the Osten herbarium is conserved. It should be noted that Mora-Osejo et al. (2011: 49) incorrectly informed that the holotype is kept at GH (“ Holótipo GH; isótipos GH, NY, S”). Their statement is not effective for typification purposes, and could not be corrected to a lectotypification (Art. 9.10 of the ICN), because the work was published after 1 January 2001 and it does not include the phrase “designated here” or an equivalent (Art. 7.11 of the ICN).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Lectotype of Gunnera herteri (W.G.F. Herter 1523, MVM-2766 barcode MVM0000293). Copyright: Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Montevideo).