Euphorbia venefica Trémaux ex Kotschy, 1857

Figueiredo, Estrela & Smith, Gideon F., 2020, Typification of Euphorbia candelabrum (Euphorbiaceae) and associated names, Phytotaxa 447 (3), pp. 216-220 : 218

Typification of Euphorbia venefica Trémaux ex Kotschy

The other species published by Kotschy (1857) and that he attributed to ‘Tremeau’ [note, not to ‘Trémaux’], was cited by Boissier (1862: 178) as ‘ Euphorbia venefica (Trémaux mss ex Kotschy in litt.)’. It is not known why Boissier (1862) used the term ‘mss’ in this case. Without providing an explanation, Brown (1912: 562) changed ‘venefica’ to ‘venenifica’, a view that was followed by Carter (1985 & 1988), who referred to ‘venefica’ as an ‘authovariant’ [sic] ( Carter 1985) or as an ‘incorrect orthographic variant’ ( Carter 1988) of ‘venenifica’. However, we argue that ‘venefica’ is not incorrect. The Latin word ‘veneficus’ means poisonous. The word ‘venenificus’ does not exist in Latin.

As was the case with the name E. candelabrum , there are no specimens or literature references cited by Kotschy (1857) for E. venefica , and Carter (1988 & 2002) likewise cited as type ‘Trémaux, Voy. Soudan Orient., Atlas: pl. 13 & 14 (1853)’. This is not an effective typification as two plates were cited and a lectotype is ‘[…] a published […] illustration […]’ ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 8.1). Additionally, both plates include plants of two species (see discussion above; one of the images in one of the plates should have been clearly and unambiguously designated).

There is at least one specimen of the original material of E. venefica . It is deposited at Herb. W and was collected by Kotschy in 1837 and labelled ‘ Euphorbia venefica Tremeaux [sic]’. This specimen (W0078596) is here designated as lectotype of the name E. venefica , with the original spelling of the epithet retained.