Diospyros ferrea (Willd.) Bakh.

Schatz, George E., Lowry Ii, Porter P., Mas, Cyrille & Callmander, Martin W., 2013, Further nomenclatural notes on Malagasy Diospyros L. (Ebenaceae): Goudot types in the Geneva herbarium, Candollea 68 (2), pp. 307-309 : 308-309

2. Diospyros ferrea (Willd.) Bakh. in Gard. Bull. Straights Settlem. ser. 3, 7: 162. 1933.

Ξ Ehretia ferrea Willd ., Phytographia 1: 4. 1794.

Typus: INDIA: sine loc., s.d., König s.n. (holo-: B †; iso-: C [ C10010825 , C10010826 , C10010827 ] images seen).

= Pisonia buxifolia Rottb. in Nye Saml. Kongel. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. 2: 536. 1783. Ξ Ferreola buxifolia (Rottb.) Roxb., Pl. Coromandel 1: 35. 1795. Ξ Maba buxifolia (Rottb.) Pers., Syn. Pl. 2: 606. 1807. Ξ Ebenus buxifolia (Rottb.) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 408. 1891. Ξ Diospyros ferrea var. buxifolia (Rottb.) Bakh. in Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg ser. 3, 15: 57. 1937 [non Diospyros buxifolia Hiern in Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 12: 218. 1873]. Typus: INDIA: sine loc., s.d., König s.n. (holo-: C [ C10010827 ]; iso-: C [ C10010825 , C100108 26 ] images seen).

= Maba madagascariensis A. DC. , Prodr. 8: 241. 1844. Ξ Diospyros ferrea var. madagascariensis (A. DC.) Bakh. in Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg ser. 3, 15: 432. 1941.

Lectotypus (designated here): MADAGASCAR: env. de Tamatave , 15.II.1831, Goudot s.n. ( G [ G0036 8886 ]!; isolecto-: G [ G00368906 ]!, G-DC [ G001 2323 ]!).

Observations. – Maba madagascariensis A. DC. was described by Alphonse de CANDOLLE (1844) without any indication of a collection other than “v. in h. Deless.”, and a location in Madagascar as “prope Tamatave”. At the time, Benjamin Delessert’s herbarium was still at his home in Paris, where both his close friend A. P. de Candolle and de Candolle’s son Alphonse were frequent visitors ( STAFLEU, 1970). Delessert died in 1847, and his herbarium was eventually given to the city of Geneva in 1869 by the daughters of Delessert’s brother François. In preparation for his monograph of Ebenaceae, W. P. Hiern visited various herbaria on the continent, including the Delessert herbarium “at Geneva” ( HIERN, 1873: 28). In his monograph, HIERN (1873) placed M. madagascariensis in synonymy under M. buxifolia (Rottb.) Pers. , citing three collections from Madagascar: Gerard 28, Bernier 112, and Pervillé 700.Regarding the first two of these collections, we have beenu nable to relocate Gerard 28,and Bernier 112 is a Convolvulaceae , Evolvulus alsinoides (L.) L. from Ling Vatou [Lanivato], although Bernier 113 is acollection of Diospyros (the type of D. bernieri Hiern from Tintingue, which we have placed in synonymy under D. squamosa A. DC. ), suggesting that Hiern may have made an error when preparing or transcribing his notes. The third collection Hiern cited, Pervillé 700, which was collected on Nosy Be, i.e., not near Tamatave, is discussed further below.

Some eighty years later, PERRIER DE LA BÂTHIE, both in the precursor to (1952a) and treatment of Ebenaceae in the Flore de Madagascar et des Comores (1952b), accepted Maba madagascariensis A. DC. , stating that it was “toujours représentée dans l’Herbier du Muséum de Paris que par le type (Pervillé 700), qui a été récolté sur l’île de Nosy-be” ( PERRIER DE LA BÂTHIE, 1952a: 104). Perrier de la BÂthie also accepted M. buxifolia as a species of the eastern littoral forest, including Bernier 112 from “Ile Sainte Marie” among the material cited, apparently repeating Hiern’serror.Given its true provenance as cited in the protologue of near Tamatave, it is unclear why Perrier would have considered Pervillé 700 from Nosy Be to be the type of M. madagascariensis . Rather, a specimen at Geneva, Goudot s.n., collected in 1831 at Tamatave, is certainly the type of this name. In addition to the collection label, it bears an original label identifying it as “ Maba madagascariensis A. DC. ” It also bears an annotation label affixed by Frank White in 1972 correctly identifying it as Diospyros ferrea (Willd.) Bakh. , a name based on Ehretia ferrea Willd. , which provides the oldest available epithet for the taxon first described as Pisonia buxifolia Rottb. , but which cannot be transferred to Diospyros because the epithet “buxifolia” is already occupied in Diospyros as D. buxifolia Hiern ( HIERN,1873) . Pisonia buxifolia and Ehretia ferrea are both based on specimens of J. G. König (s.n.) collected in India, originally deposited in Copenhagen and Berlin respectively.Wehave been unable to locate any material that could be the König s.n. type of E. ferrea , having enquired at both B, where Willdenow was based, and BM, which has significant holdings of König specimens. In Copenhagen, there is a König collection [C10010827] that bears a handwritten label “Irumbilli Tamulorum idest Lignum duritie fer. dioeca pentandr. baccifera Arbor interdum frutex habitat in sylvis Kön.”, the “Irumbilli Tamulorum”, which refers to the vernacular name (“Irumbilli”) of the Tamil people and derives from the word for iron (“irumpu”) in the Tamil language, corresponding closely to “Irrumbili Thamulorum” in the Rottbøl protologue of Pisonia buxifolia .Interestingly,the Willdenow protologue of Ehretia ferrea includes the citation “Frambelli Tamulis, i.e. lignum ferreum. Frambo significat ferrum.” Therefore, it seems likely that Rottbøl and Willdenow were studying duplicates of the same König gathering, with Willdenow interpreting the “I” in “Irumbilli” as an “F”. The “I” in “Irumbilli” has also been interpreted as a “T”, both by Copenhagen in their transcription of the label on [C10010827] and by Roxburgh; BAKHUIZEN VAN DEN BRINK (1936 -1941) attributes the vernacular name “Trumbilli” to Roxburgh, and also cites “Iramballi” as another Tamil vernacular name. The Goudot s.n. Geneva type of Maba madagascariensis appears to be conspecific with the König s.n. type of Pisonia buxifolia at Copenhagen, and thus Maba madagascariensis is confirmed as a synonym of Diospyros ferrea . Whether D. ferrea is interpreted to have an extremely broad distribution from West Africa to Polynesia and Hawaii, as circumscribed by BAKHUIZEN VAN DEN BRINK (1936 -1941), is highly questionable. In our opinion, with the exception of material from coastal East Africa, collections from continental Africa do not conform particularly well to the König s.n. type of Pisonia buxifolia and thus probably do not belong in D. ferrea . While coastal collections from Southeast Asia and Polynesia may represent D. ferrea , many of the infraspecific taxa described by BAKHUIZEN VAN DEN BRINK (1936 -1941) may well deserve recognition at the species level pending a comprehensive revision of this complex throughout its range.

The enigma of Pervillé 700 [P00573496], cited initially by Hiern as representing Maba buxifolia ,the taxon under which he placed M. madagascariensis as asynonym, and then cited by Perrier de la BÂthie as the type of M. madagascariensis , is further confounded by Descoings’s misinterpretation of handwriting on the label of aPerrier de la BÂthie collection. In his precursor to the treatment of Dichapetalaceae for the Flore de Madagascar et des Comores ( DESCOINGS, 1961), DESCOINGS (1960) described Dichapetalum thouarsianum var. pubescens Desc. , citing the type as “Pervillé 700”,but he then failed to cite this specimen the following year in his Flore de Madagascar treatment. In fact, the specimen in question is certainly Perrier de la Bâthie 700 [P00298479], collected in 1898 at Tampolo and bearing a handwritten label with an abbreviated signature by Perrier that appears to read “M. PerrdelB”, which was misinterpreted by Descoings as “Pervillé”, despite the fact that Pervillé had died by 1868. In a supplemental note the following year, DESCOINGS (1962) also failed to cite Pervillé 700, but did cite Perrier de la Bâthie 700, albeit not under D. thouarsianum var. pubescens ,but rather under the species name D. thouarsianum with the indication “sans localité”. In placing D. thouarsianum var. pubescens in synonymy under D. madagascariense Poir. var. madagascariense, BRETELER (1981) perpetuated the incorrect citation of Perrier de la Bâthie 700 as Pervillé 700. In reality, Pervillé 700 from Nosy Be is neither a type of Maba madagascariensis nor of Dichapetalum thouarsianum var. pubescens , nor is it a collection of Diospyros ferrea , which is restricted in Madagascar to the east coast. Rather , it is indeed an as yet undescribed species of Diospyros with affinity to D. bernieriana (Baill.) H. Perrier .