Gomesa novaesae (Ruschi) Fraga & A.P.Fontana, 2011

Fraga, Claudio Nicoletti De & Fontana, André Paviotti, 2011, Transferring Oncidium novaesae to Gomesa (Orchidaceae) and notes on Gomesa doeringii, Phytotaxa 20 (1), pp. 57-59 : 57-59

Gomesa novaesae (Ruschi) Fraga & A.P.Fontana , comb. nov.

Basionym: Oncidium novaesae Ruschi, Bol. Mus. Biol. Prof. Mello Leitão, Série Botânica 51: 3. 1970. Type: BRAZIL. Espírito Santo: Santa Teresa, Estação Biológica do Museu Nacional, fl. 4 May 1951, A. Ruschi s.n., no. 1080, (holotype MBML, destroyed). Lectotype (here designated): Maria Stella Novaes’ original drawing, in the personal archives of Augusto Ruschi deposited in the Museu de Biologia Prof. Mello Leitão and reproduced in Ruschi, 1970b: 15, t. 30 and Ruschi, 1986: 240.

Synonyms:–– Oncidium zappii Pabst (1976: 155) , Anettea zappii (Pabst) Szlach. & Mytnik. (2006: 50) , Brasilidium zappii (Pabst) Camppaci (2006: 79) , Gomesa zappii (Pabst) M.W.Chase & N.H.Williams (in: Chase et al. 2009: 398). Holotype: BRAZIL. Espírito Santo: Near Venda Nova, fl. 26 May 1976, Zappi 48, (HB!), syn. nov.

The material used by Ruschi in the description of G. novaesae was preserved in alcohol and deposited in the Herbarium of Museu de Biologia Prof. Mello Leitão (spirit collection). We had the opportunity to examine it before it was tragically destroyed by floods that occurred on December 18th, 2000. These completely ruined part of the important botanical collection of the Museum. The type specimen, now lost as a result, consisted only of fixed flowers and a label with a record of its number (i.e. 1080).

Although the type material was destroyed, the original description and illustration ( Ruschi 1970 a, 1970b) clearly provide morphological data which allow the recognition of Oncidium zappii Pabst ( Pabst 1976) , transferred to Gomesa by Chase et al. (2009), as identical to G. novaesae . Thus the binomials O. zappii and G. zappii are here treated as new synonyms of G. novaesae following the rule of priority, Art. 11.4 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature ( McNeill et al. 2006). The authors of both these new synonyms characterized O. zappii / G. zappii by the lip with a brown-purplish disk, a feature also found in G. novaesae .

Due to the destruction of the type material and the absence of any other specimens cited in the protologue of O. novaesae , the original illustration by the artist Maria Stella de Novaes , which is sufficient for identification of this taxon, is designated here as lectotype .