Stickmannia thyrsiflora (Mikan) Kuntze (1891: 721)

Aona, Lidyanne Yuriko Saleme, Bittrich, Volker & Amaral, Maria Do Carmo E., 2018, Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on Brazilian Dichorisandra (Commelinaceae), Phytotaxa 348 (1), pp. 1-13 : 10

13. Dichorisandra thyrsiflora Mikan (1820 : T. 3).

≡ Stickmannia thyrsiflora (Mikan) Kuntze (1891: 721) , syn. nov.

Type:— W destroyed; other specimens of the original herbarium material not found. Lectotype (designated by Aona et al. 2014: 232): tab. 3 in Mikan (1820).

= Dichorisandra ovata Paxton (1849: 5) , nom. illeg. non D. ovata Mart. ex Schultes f. et syn. nov.

Type:—probably lost or none preserved. Lectotype (designated here):—[illustration] tab. 3 in Paxton (1849), image available at https:// www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48335465#page/26/mode/1up.

= Convallaria racemosa Vellozo (1825 [publ. 1829]: 142), auct. non Linnaeus (1753: 315–316).

Distribution: — Dichorisandra thyrsiflora has been collected mostly in the states of Rio de Janeiro and rarely in Minas Gerais and Bahia.

Habitat:—Usually occurs in coastal vegetation on sandy soils just above the dunes and influenced by the climatic conditions close to the sea (restinga). This species is commonly grown as an ornamental plant in gardens. The herbarium specimens from Peru, El Salvador and the Brazilian states of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul that we analyzed are from cultivated plants.

Notes:— Mikan (1820) published D. thyrsiflora but did not indicate a holotype nor cited any herbarium specimens and no original herbarium material was discovered during our study. For this reason, Aona et al. (2014) designated the illustration in Mikan´s publication as the lectotype. Aona et al. (2014) also discussed the name Convallaria racemosa Vellozo (1825 [publ. 1829]: 142).

Schultes f. described Dichorisandra ovata in 1830. Certainly, without knowing this, Paxton (1849) described another plant under the name D. ovata based on greenhouse grown material at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Thus D. ovata Paxton is an illegitimate later homonym of D. ovata Martius ex Schultes f. (= D. hexandra ). No original herbarium material used by Paxton to describe D. ovata was found. Plate 3 in Paxton (1849) well illustrates the species and was chosen as the lectotype. The plate and protologue contain the following diagnostic characters for D. ovata : “herbaceous perennial, growing from three to four feet high; (…) racemes terminal erect; (…) petals three, obtuse, entire, larger than the sepals, of nearly equal size, intense blue, the base paler; stamens six, three interior and three exterior, erect.” These characters, together with the illustration itself, leave no doubt that D. ovata Paxton is a synonym of D. thyrsiflora .