Smilax gigantea Merrill (1922: 161)

Sukhramani, Geetika & Choudhary, Ritesh Kumar, 2022, Lectotypification of four names in the genus Smilax (Smilacaceae), Phytotaxa 532 (1), pp. 107-113 : 107

1. Smilax gigantea Merrill (1922: 161) . Fig. 1

Lectotype (designated here): BORNEO, Sandakan and vicinity, Sept-Dec 1920, M. Ramos 1850, K000292107 (K, digital image!). Isolectotypes: P00686981 (P, digital image!), 00030119 (A, digital image!), L1453511 (L, digital image!), 00092004 ( US, digital image!).

Distribution: BORNEO.

Notes: Smilax gigantea was described by Elmer Drew Merrill in 1922 based on the collections made from British North Borneo near Sandakan by M. Ramos in November, 1920. While searching for the type specimen of Smilax gigantea , we found that Ramos’ collections were housed at various herbaria viz., A, BO, BR, C, CAL, CM, DPU, E, G, GH, K, L, MANCH, MO, NSW, NY, P, PNH, SAN, U, US and WRSL and after a thorough search, we could locate five duplicates for this collection, one each at P (P00686981), K (K000292107), US (00092004), A (00030119) and L (L1453511). All these specimens have M. Ramos’ annotation as “ Smilax gigantea Merr. n. sp., 1850, Sandakan and vicinity, Sept-Dec, 1920, Flora of British North Borneo”. Out of these, specimen K000292107 is designated as a lectotype, following articles 7.11, 9.3, and 9.12 of the ICN ( Turland et al. 2018). This specimen matches perfectly with the protologue description and bears the branches and inflorescence in good condition.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Lectotype of Smilax gigantea Merrill K000292107 © copyright of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.