Thonningia mexicana Liebmann (1847: 180)

Cardoso, Leandro Jorge Telles & Braga, João Marcelo Alvarenga, 2018, Typifications and nomenclatural notes on Neotropical Balanophoraceae, Phytotaxa 340 (3), pp. 263-270 : 268-269

Thonningia mexicana Liebmann (1847: 180)

Type (lectotype, first-step designated by Hansen 1980: 68):— MEXICO. Oaxaca: Tepilongo, Tonagnia , 3000–4000 ft., 1865, F. M. Liebmann s.n. (C-1184!; second-step lectotype, here designated, isolectotype C-1195!) .

Nomenclatural notes:—Referring to the type of T. mexicana, Hansen (1980) wrote: “Type Liebmann sn, Mexico, Tepilongo, Tonagnia, Oajaca, a lt. 3-4000 ped. (holotype, C)”. The Hansen’s typification (1980) satisfies the Arts. 7.9, 7.10 and 9.22 of the ICN and constitutes an effective lectotype designation, but the Hansen’s use of the term holotype is an error correctable to lectotype (Art. 9.9 of the ICN, McNeill et al. 2012, McNeill 2014). We traced in C two duplicate specimens ( Fig. 3) preserved in jars labelled C-1184 [staminate inflorescences] and C-1195 [pistillate inflorescences] referable to the gathering cited by Hansen (1980). Thus, it is possible to consider the Hansen typification as a “first-step lectotypification”, that may be further narrowed to a single specimen by a “second-step lectotypification” according to Art. 9.17 of the ICN. Liebmann (1847) mainly uses morphological features of the staminate inflorescence to distinguish T. mexicana . Thus we designate the jar C-1184, which contains several staminate inflorescences, as second-step lectotype. Besides jar C-1195 (isolectotype), in the collection of herbarium C there is a non-published color plate ( C barcode C 10014111!) ( Hansen 1980: 2), that is based on the original material showing all the morphological features discussed by Liebmann (1847).

Taxonomic notes:— Thonningia mexicana is a heterotypic synonym of L. hypogaea Mart.