Hibiscus sarmatiacus Doweld, 2018

Doweld, Alexander B., 2018, Palaeoflora Europaea: Notulae Systematicae ad Palaeofloram Europaeam spectantes I. New names of fossil magnoliophytes of the European Tertiary. I. Miscellaneous families, Phytotaxa 379 (1), pp. 78-94 : 85

Hibiscus sarmatiacus Doweld , sp. nov.

≡ Hibiscus splendens Baikovskaja (in Kryshtofovich & Baikovskaja 1965: 110), nom. inval. (ICN, Art. 40.1) & nom. illeg. non Hibiscus splendens Graham (1830: 175) .

Description:—Leaves large, 5–7-angular in shape, with lobes and not deep wedge-shaped basis and attenuate apex. Teeth festoon-shaped, commonly with papillate apex. Basal veins of 2 pairs, terminate in the lobes or larger teeth. Secondary veinlets and its branches craspedodrome.

Type:—[fossil leaves] Krynka river, right tributary of Mius river, Matveev-Kurgan district, Rostov region, Russian Federation (holotype, 954+954a/982, Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St.- Petersburg, Russian Federation)—figured by Kryshtofovich & Baikovskaja 1965: pl. 33, fig. 3.

Occurrence:—Middle Miocene (Serravalian = Upper Badenian); Europe.

Eponymy:—From Sarmatia , an ancient palaeogeographical unit (now Eastern Europe).

IFPNI: 9DFD2BDC-0E42-1220-1740-3E14F505F436.

Note:—The fossil-species Hibiscus splendens Baikovskaja (in Kryshtofovich & Baikovskaja 1965: 110) was not validly published, since the author did not designate the type (ICN, Art. 40.1), based the description on several leaf imprints (Coll. 982: 954–956, 1278, 1300, 1302). The fossil-species was not validated later by Purceladze & Tsagareli (1974: 99), who reported this Hibiscus from Transcaucasus (Guria, Georgia). In addition, the species name should be changed since the species epithet is preoccupied by the validly published name of extant Hibiscus splendens Graham (1830: 175) .