Smilax glabra Roxburgh (1832: 792)

Sukhramani, Geetika & Choudhary, Ritesh Kumar, 2023, Taxonomic Reconciliation of Smilacaceae in the Indian Subcontinent: Synonymy, Typification, Updated Inventory, and a Vegetative Key for Identification, Phytotaxa 622 (1), pp. 42-62 : 51-52

1. Smilax glabra Roxburgh (1832: 792) . ( Fig. 3 )

Lectotype (first step, designated by Koyama 1983: 90):— Wallich 5114, Inde, Silhet, K

Lectotype (second step, designated here):— INDIA. Sylhet : s.loc., s.d., Wallich 5114B K001104841 ( K, digital image!) . Isolectotypes:— INDIA. Sylhet: s.loc., s.d., Wallich 5114B K000820915 ( K, digital image!) ; INDIA. Silhet : s.loc., s.d., Wallich 5114B P00686811 ( P, digital image!) .

Distribution:— BANGLADESH, CAMBODIA, CHINA, INDIA, LAOS, MYANMAR, THAILAND, TAIWAN, VIETNAM.

Notes:— Roxburgh described Smilax glabra in 1832 by providing a description, the phenology, as well as the provenance (A native of the Silhet district and of the adjacent Garrow country), without citing any specimen. A drawing of the species (No. 2563) is included in “The Roxburgh Collection” at the Library of the Royal Botanic Garden of Kew. Moreover, most of Roxburgh’s collections are included in the Wallich Catalogue and Kew Herbarium, where potential type specimens could be searched for. During our search for the type specimens, we found that they are housed at K and P. Koyama (1983), while preparing the account of Smilacaceae in Flora of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam wrote ‘ Type: Wallich 5114, Inde, Silhet, K’. His use of the term ‘type’ is correctable to ‘lectotype’ in accordance with 9.10 of the ICN ( Turland et al. 2018).

However, it is important to mention that there are two sheets at K from Sylhet: K001104841 (corresponding to the Sylhet collection, bearing a 5114B label), and the other K000820915 bearing a Wallich’s tag with both 5114A and 5114B. However, after examining these sheets, we consider that K000820915 belongs to 5114B as it bears flowers rather than fruits like 5114A (Calcutta Botanical Garden) does. Although Koyama (1983) did not specify which of these sheets at K is the type, he narrowed the type Wallich 5114 from Silhet housed at K, it is construed here that his inadvertent designation constitutes the first-step of lectotypification. Therefore, following articles 7.11, 9.3, 9.12, and 9.17 of the ICN ( Turland et al. 2018), we hereby designate specimen K001104841 as the second-step lectotype. This specimen aligns closely with the protologue and provides comprehensive information about the male flowers of S. glabra .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Lectotype (second-step) of Smilax glabra Roxburgh K001104841 © The Boardof Trustees of the RBG, Kew (http://specimens. kew.org/herbarium/K001104841).