Leucosyke capitellata (Poir.) Wedd., Prodr.

Turner, Ian M., 2022, FROM ACACIA TO ZIZIPHUS: PLANT NAMES COMMEMORATING THE BOTANIST WILLIAM ROXBURGH, Edinburgh Journal of Botany 79 (1911), pp. 1-102 : 62

Leucosyke capitellata (Poir.) Wedd., Prodr. 16(1): 235 (1869). – Urtica capitellata Poir.

in Lamarck, Encycl., Suppl. 4: 227 (1816). – Type: Java, Labillardière s.n. (lectotype P [ P06457237 ], designated here; possible isolectotype FI [ FL065421 ]) .

Urtica roxburghii Steud., Nomencl. Bot. , ed. 2, 2: 736 (1841). – Type: W. Roxburgh s.n. [ EIC 4614 ] (lectotype K-W [ K001039473 ], designated here).

Steudel published Urtica roxburghii based on ‘ U. pubescens . Roxb. Wall. cat.’ This clearly refers to entry 4614 in Wallich’s Catalogue, which states ‘ Urtica pubescens Hb. Roxb. ’

But there is a later correction (in a series of additions and corrections after entry 6294, published in 1832) of the species name to ‘ Urtica frutescens’. Roxburgh’s description of Urtica frutescens Thunb. was published in the 1832 edition of Flora Indica . As Steudel treated Urtica frutescens Thunb. as a separate species, Urtica roxburghii Steud. can be taken as a name validated by Roxburgh’s description excluding Thunberg’s nomenclatural type. The Roxburgh specimen under 4614 bears a ticket in Roxburgh’s hand with the name Urtica frutescens . It has been determined as Leucosyke capitellata , which seems correct. Urtica roxburghii Steud. is therefore considered a synonym of Leucosyke capitellata .

In the protologue of Urtica capitellata, Poiret referred to a Labillardière collection from Java that he had seen in the herbarium of Desfontaines. Desfontaines’s personal herbarium is a part of Herb. Webbianum in Florence. There is a specimen in FI indicated as coming from Herb. Labillardière, but it is not labelled with Poiret’s name, the collecting locality, or an indication that it was definitely in Desfontaines’s herbarium. Paris has a small specimen from Poiret’s personal herbarium that has an original ticket with labels including ‘ Urtica capitellata’ and ‘Labill. Java’. I therefore select the P specimen as lectotype and consider the FI specimen as a possible isolectotype.