Dichorisandra marginata Schlechtendal (1853: 454)

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 : 7-8

9. Dichorisandra procera Martius ex Schultes f. (1830: 1187) .

Type:— BRAZIL. Habitat in humidi prope V. da Caxoeira.Provinciae Bahiensis. Febr. 1818. Dr. Martius s.n. (Lectotype [here designated]: M 0086145 !; Isolectotypes: M 0243703 !, M 0243704 !) .

= Dichorisandra marginata Schlechtendal (1853: 454) , syn. nov.

Neotype (designated here):— BRAZIL. Bahia: Nova Viçosa, Rod. Sentido Mucuri-Nova Viçosa, Sítio Por do Sol. 20 February 2005. 17°56’26.6”S, 39°26’42.7”W. L. Y. S. Aona 938 & A. S. B. Gil (Neotype: UEC!).

≡ Dichorisandra albomarginata Linden ex Regel (1868: 34) var. marginata (Schlechtendal) Clarke (1881: 283) . syn. nov.

Distribution: —Based on the herbarium material analyzed, this species occurs in Alagoas, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Pernambuco.

Habitat:—Mainly known from coastal Brazil in areas influenced by the ocean (arboreal restinga) and Lowland Dense Ombrophilous Forest.

Notes:— Three specimens of D. procera were found at M. The specimen M 0086145 was designated as the lectotype because it is fertile and includes annotations by Martius.

D. marginata was described by Schlechtendal (1853) based on material cultivated at the Halle Botanical Garden ( Germany) without mentioning where the material was originally collected from. No material was cited in the original description and the database at the Halle herbarium indicates that there is no type material linked to this species (http:// www.botanik.uni-halle.de/herbarium/). For this reason, we designated here a neotype for D. marginata choosing a specimen that best fits with the protologue of D. marginata and illustrates the diagnostic characters of D. procera .

After reading the detailed description of D. marginata there is no doubt that it should be treated as a synonym of D. procera . As indicated in the protologue, D. marginata shares the following characters with D. procera : “ caulis florifer quotannis ex rizomate oritur tripedalis, basi lin. 9 crassus, teres (...) quarum inferiors aphyllae ”, “ Internodia viridia, lineolis albis longitudinalibus internodum seriatim confluentibus dense picta ad basin (intra vaginam) purpureoviolacea nec linealis picta (...)”, “ lamina elliptico-oblonga, acute acuminada, basi longius attenuata, (...) glabra, supra viridis ”, “ Petala pulchre et intense violacea, sepalis alterna iisque longiora, apice obtusato extus flexa, ungue angustato pallidiore. Stamina 6, duplice serie disposita medium spatium occupant, filamenta omnium brevissima, latiuscula albida. ” Although anther dehiscence is not mentioned in the description (two apical pores in D. procera ), Schlechtendal notes that the species is morphologically close to D. thyrsiflora (one apical pore). The description of the adaxial leaf surface as uniformly green excludes the possibility of D. marginata to be synonymized with D. albomarginata .

It is likely that Clarke (1881) recognized D. marginata as a variety of D. albomarginata without seeing any specimens; however, in the present study D. albomarginata var. marginata is considered a synonym of D. procera .