Dioscorea scorpioidea Wright (1871: 74)

Raz, Lauren, 2016, Untangling the West Indian Dioscoreaceae: New combinations, lectotypification and synonymy, Phytotaxa 258 (1), pp. 26-48 : 39

16. Dioscorea scorpioidea Wright (1871: 74) . Rajania cordata var. scorpioidea (C.Wright) R.Knuth Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 7: 220. 1917. Rajania scorpioidea (Wright) Uline ex R.Knuth pro syn. in Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 7: 220. 1917. Type:— CUBA. Pinar del Rio: en la loma pelada cerca del Retiro, San Cristobal, 1864, Wright 3746 ♂ (holotype HAC!, isotypes GH!, K!). The number 3746 appears only on the K sheet, with a note stating that the specimen was issued with a serial number in 1869. The remaining duplicates are not numbered

Rajania ekmanii Knuth (1925: 80) . Type:— CUBA. Pinar del Río: Pinar de Cajalbana, 28 August 1923, E.L. Ekman 17348 ♂ ♀ (holotype S!, isotypes B!, NY!).

Note: Western Cuban endemic. The application of the name D. scorpioidea to this species is novel. Wright’s description was based exclusively on the type collection (staminate); the specimens are quite old and fragile and it hasn’t been possible to do any in-depth morphological or genetic studies with the material, but details of the flowers have been meticulously recorded and illustrated on the K sheet by David Prain (annotated 1916). Except for its slightly more robust inflorescences, the D. scorpioidea type is identical to that of R. ekmanii . The types of both have leaves dotted with irregularly shaped macroscopic black glands, staminate inflorescences in scorpioid cymes, tepals highly tanniniferous (seen as red spots under the dissecting microscope), and stamens with long, slender filaments. The type locality of D. scorpioidea is slightly southeast of the Cajalbana locality where the Ekman type was collected. This species is one of the six represented among the Wright 1712 collections.