Rotala rotundifolia

Prasanth, Arun, Sharma, Oshin A. & Sardesai, Milind M., 2021, New distributional record of Rotala juniperina (Lythraceae) for Asia with typification of three names, Phytotaxa 514 (2), pp. 167-172 : 171

Rotala rotundifolia (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Koehne (1880: 175).

= Ammannia rotundifolia Buch. -Ham. ex Roxb. ( Roxburgh 1820: 446).

Lectotype (designated here):—[icon] “ Ammannia rotundifolia ” in Icones Roxburghianae ( K [Icones No. 1344!], digital image available at http://apps.kew.org/floraindica/img/illustration/large/32124.jpg]

Typification note: —According to Stafleu and Cowan (1983), the major collections of Roxburgh are deposited in K and considerable number of sets are at BM, BR, E and LIV. In the course of our attempts to locate the original material, we found a single specimen (BM000944561) at BM labelled as type, collected by Buchanan from Mysore (Mysoor). The protologue states “Plants sent from Lukshmee-poora and Malda, where they are indigenous, flowered in the Botanical Garden during the cold season of 1797”. Hence the locality mentioned in the protologue does not agree with the material housed at BM and is seemingly not a part of the original material. We also saw a specimen at BR (BR0000005856725) collected by Roxburgh which lacks information of collection no., locality, and date. It is doubtful that these specimens available at BM and BR are the original material. Our visit to CAL and the previously mentioned herbaria failed to locate the type or original material. Nevertheless, an illustration available in Roxburgh’s Icones Roxburghianae no. 1344 matches the protologue. Hence, the illustration no. 1344 is designated here as a lectotype of R. rotundifolia . The identity of a widely available aquarium plant commercialised as R. rotundifolia , remains uncertain. But taxonomic identity of the wild populations of R. rotundifolia distributed in South and Southeast Asia is certain ( Cook 1979, Joseph & Sivarajan 1989).