Thismia subg. Thismia sect. Geomitra (Becc.) Kumar & S.W. Gale, 2017

Kumar, Pankaj, Gale, Stephan W., Li, Ji-Hong, Bouamanivong, Somsanith & Fischer, Gunter A., 2017, Thismia nigricoronata, a new species of Burmanniaceae (Thismieae, Dioscoreales) from Vang Vieng, Vientiane Province, Laos, and a key to subgeneric classification, Phytotaxa 319 (3), pp. 225-240 : 233-234

Thismia subg. Thismia sect. Geomitra (Becc.) Kumar & S.W. Gale , comb. nov. [basionym: Geomitra Beccari (1878:

250) ≡ Bagnisia sect. Geomitra (Becc.) Engler (1888: 48) ].

Type:— Thismia clavigera (Becc.) Mueller (1891: 235) [basionym: Geomitra clavigera Beccari (1878: 251) ], designated by Jonker (1938: 255). Species included: T. clavigera (Becc.) F.Muell., Pap. & Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania 1890: 235 (1891). T. betungkerihuensis Tsukaya & H.Okada, Syst. Bot. 37: 56 (2012).

Notes:— Beccari established the genera Bagnisia (based on B. crocea Beccari (1878: 249)) and Geomitra (based on G. episcopalis Beccari (1878: 250) and G. clavigera Beccari (1878: 251)) in 1878, but Bentham & Hooker (1883) later suggested that the two were congeneric on account of both sharing a fleshy, leafless habit. Engler (1888) accordingly reduced Geomitra to sectional rank within Bagnisia but without designating a type, simultaneously making the new combination B. episcopalis ( Beccari 1878: 250) Engler (1888: 48) and creating B. sect. “ Eubagnisia ” (not validly published: Art. 21.3) to accommodate B. crocea . Mueller (1891) subsequently transferred both Geomitra and Bagnisia to the genus Thismia , judging the difference in perianth lobe morphology that separates them (united in the former two, free in the latter) to be too minor for recognition at generic level. Jonker (1938) nevertheless treated Geomitra at genus level and selected G. clavigera as its type. Various authors have since either maintained Geomitra as a separate genus ( Govaerts et al. 2007) or synonymised it under Thismia ( Stone 1980; Merckx et al. 2006; Chantanaorrapint & Chantanaorrapint 2009; Hunt et al. 2014; Merckx & Smets 2014). Most recently, Merckx & Smets (2014) listed Geomitra as one of six sections within Thismia subg. Thismia but without formally making the combination. We therefore validate Geomitra as a section within Thismia here.

Thismia subg. Thismia sect. Scaphiophora (Schltr.) Kumar & S.W.Gale comb. & stat. nov. [basionym: Scaphiophora ( Schlechter 1921: 39) ].

Type:— Thismia appendiculata Schlechter (1918: 202) ≡ Scaphiophora appendiculata (Schltr.) Schlechter (1921: 39) .

Species included:

T. appendiculata Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 55: 202 (1918).

T. gigantea (Jonker) Hroneš, Phytotaxa 172: 55 (2014).

Notes:— Schlechter (1918) described the species Thismia appendiculata ( Schlechter 1918: 203) from New Guinea. He later proposed the new genus Scaphiophora ( Schlechter 1921: 39) along with the new combination S. appendiculata ( Schlechter 1918: 202) Schlechter (1921: 39) , highlighting the connate appendages of the perianth lobes as one of the main characters to differentiate Scaphiophora from Thismia (in which the perianth lobe appendages are free). Jonker (1938) accepted the new genus and added one more species, S. gigantea ( Jonker 1938: 257) , which was later transferred to Thismia as T. gigantea ( Jonker 1938: 257) Hroneš (2014: 55) , following Merckx et al. (2013) and Merckx & Smets (2014). This new combination has been accepted and followed thereafter ( Govaerts et al. 2007). Based on morphological and DNA analysis, Merckx & Smets (2014) informally reduced Scaphiophora to sectional rank within Thismia but without validly publishing the sectional name. It is therefore formally validated here.