Paepalanthus balansae Ruhland (1903: 151)

Trovó, Marcelo & Echternacht, Lívia, 2023, Notes on Paepalanthus (Eriocaulaceae) from central Brazil and Paraguay, Phytotaxa 598 (2), pp. 145-156 : 150

Paepalanthus balansae Ruhland (1903: 151) .

Type :— PARAGUAY: [Pastoréo-mi à la Est de la Cordillère de Villarica], 25 September 1874, B. Balansa 568. Lectotype, designated by Moldenke (1970: 365) as “type” and corrected here, B! [B 10 0247854] fragment, isolectotypes BR! [BR0000008554048], F photo! [F0045750F] fragment, G! [G00004573], G! 2X[G00195500], K! [K000587311], LE! [LE00001137], P! [P00713450], P! [P00716650], P! [P00716651], NY! [NY00102796] fragment, S! [S-R-3866].

= Paepalanthus balansae var. densiflorus Moldenke (1962: 162) .

Type :— BRAZIL. Paraná: [Serra dos Dourados, PR. Cerradinho. Campo úmido], October 1958, R. Braga & R. Lange 92. Holotype LL! [LL00374665], isotype UPCB! [UPCB0002273]. syn. nov.

= Paepalanthus scholiophyllus var. balansae Ruhland ex Moldenke. nom. nud.

Notes: — Ruhland (1903) described Paepalanthus balansae based on the specimens B. Balansa 568 collected in Paraguay and distributed trough many European and North American herbaria. Moldenke (1970) stated that the specimen at B is the type and the specimens in other herbaria are isotypes. Although Wilhelm Ruhland annotated on the exsiccate labels that the specimen in BR is a type specimen and the specimen at B is a fragment of the specimen from BR, Moldenke’s (1970) designation is not in serious conflict with the published protologue, as the specimen at B has enough material to enable us to distinguish the species, and the designation satisfies the ICN articles 7.10, 7.11, 9.10, and 9.23 ( Turland et al. 2018). Therefore, although it is not the best option, the specimen at B should be treated as the lectotype ( McNeill 2014, Prado et al. 2015), and Moldenke (1970) “type” citation is here corrected.

Moldenke (1962) described Paepalanthus balansae var. densiflorus based on the specimen R. Braga & R. Lange 92 collected in Paraná (Brazil) and said to be deposited in his personal herbarium in Yonkers, New York. The only specimen matching the collection number, date, and place is the specimen now housed at LL, and it also bears the typical Moldenke “type” label. There are however specimens deposited in NY [NY00501296] and in US [ US 01932715] holding labels with the same collector number, but with a posterior date and from different collection sites. We consider thus that the only specimen fully matching the protolog is the specimen at LL with a duplicate found at UPCB. These specimens should be treated as the holotype and isotype of the species, respectively. Moldenke (1962) distinguished P. balansae var. densiflorus based on the globose and many-flowered capitula of ca. 1cm in diameter. Such circumscription falls within the range of morphological variation of the typical variety and the heterotypic variety is thus proposed here as synonymous.

When detailing Paepalanthus balansae, Moldenke (1970) cited the name P. scholiophyllus var. balansae Ruhland ex Moldenke as its synonym with additional references. The name indeed appears only in lists of species and in the label of a few specimens numbered as Hassler 9499 (e.g. US [ US 01932714]). As no proper description or diagnosis was published, the name is considered as nudum according to article 38 of the ICN ( Turland et al. 2018). As indicated by Moldenke (1970), the specimen Hassler 9499 is within the range of morphological variation of P. balansae and should be treated only at the species level.

Exsiccate list: — Arbo 8857 (HUEFS, MO); Balansa 568 (B, BR, F, G, LE, K, P, NY, S); Basualdo 4694 (MO); 6447 (MO); Braga 92 (LL, UPCB); 92 (NY, US); Brunner 1510 (MO, SPF); Casas 3865 (NY); 4006 (NY); 7539 (NY, MO); Hahn 1774 (MO); Hassler 4448 (NY, MO, P, US); 9499 (NY, MO, P, US); 11345 (P); Hatschbach 48461 (MBM, MO, US); 58708 (MBM); Mereles 1051 (MO); Pedersen 15045 (L, MBM, MO); Rojas 4067 (MO); Schinini 5820 (NY).