Diospyros samoensis A. Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 5: 326. 1861.

Lectotypus (designated here): SAMOA: Tutuila and Savaii, Samoan or Navigators’ Islands, s.d., fr., Wilkes Exploration Expedition s.n. (US [US00113486]!; isolecto-: GH [GH00015718] image seen, K [K000792813]!, NY [NY00334804] image seen, US [US00113485]!).

= Diospyros olen Hiern in Trans. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 12: 246. 1873. Lectotypus (designated by WHITE, 1993a): NEW CALEDONIA. Prov. des Îles: Lifou, s.d., Deplanche 31 (K [K000792731]!; isolecto-: L [L0006035] image seen, P [P00151306, P00151307, P00151308]!), syn. nov.

= Diospyros sebertii Guillaumin in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 69: 66. 1922. Ξ Diospyros montana Pancher & Sébert, in Sébert, Rev. Marit. Colon. 40: 503. 1874 [non Diospyros montana Roxb.]. Lectotypus (designated by WHITE, 1993b): NEW CALEDONIA: sine loco, s.d., Sébert & Fournier 18 (P [P00151399]!; isolecto-: P [P00151289]!), syn. nov.

= Diospyros austrocaledonica Hiern in Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 46: 211. 1921. Holotypus: NEW CALEDONIA: sine loco, s.d., Le Boucher 1529 (leg. Cribbs) (NSW, not seen), syn. nov.

= Diospyros leroyi Kosterm. in Blumea 23: 460. 1977. Typus: NEW CALEDONIA. Prov. Sud: “ ad septentrionem tribus Koindé ”, 3.VIII.1965, fr., Bernardi 9961 (L [L0005991] image seen; iso-: K [K000792729]!, P [P00151296]!, S [S09-33764] image seen), syn. nov.

Notes. – As indicated by WHITE (1993b), D. olen is part of a series of closely allied species extending from southern India and Sri Lanka to Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu, which includes also D. ebenum J. Koenig, D. hebecarpa A. Cunn. ex Benth., D. insularis Bakh., D. novoguineensis Bakh., and D. samoensis . Our review of material from New Caledonia has shown that D. olen is indistinguishable from material of D. samoensis collected in Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu, prompting us to place D. olen in synonymy. Further study of the complex may reveal that most or all of the species in the series can be accommodated within D. ebenum, one of the ebony species of commerce. Of the two sheets of the type of D. samoensis (Wilkes Exploration Expedition s.n.) at US, the sheet with fruit [US 00113486] is here chosen as the lectotype.