Duranta microphylla Desfontaines (1804: 54)

Pablo, Moroni & Nataly, O’Leary, 2016, Typification of names in the genus Duranta (Duranteae, Verbenaceae), Phytotaxa 266 (2), pp. 91-102 : 97

Duranta microphylla Desfontaines (1804: 54)

Type (lectotype, designated here):—[LOCATION UNKNOWN: Meridional America]. Cultivated in Jardin du Roi (Paris, France), unknown collector ( P barcode 02886200[digital image!], specimen on the lower left corner).

Protologue citation:—“Amérique méridionale; serre-chaude; ligneuse.”

Notes:— Desfontaines (1804) published a catalogue of plants cultivated in the Royal Botanical Garden of Paris, describing several unknown or poorly known species. In the protologue of D. microphylla Desfontaines pointed out that this species is a woody plant growing in southern America and it is cultivated in a greenhouse in the botanical garden. There is no further reference to original material. The protologue of the species was misquoted by several authors ( Todaro 1875; Moldenke 1971; Moldenke 1979) except for Poiret (1811) and Hamilton (1825). The mistake probably lies in the fact that in the third edition of the catalogue Desfontaines (1829) published a more complete description of D. microphylla ..

A sheet stored under Duranta microphylla was found in P were Desfontaines studied ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976); three labels on the sheet read D. microphylla but only the specimen at the lower left corner of the sheet has a calligraphy that matches Desfontaines’s handwriting ( Steinberg 1973). So, this specimen housed in P is here selected as lectotype. Poiret (1811: 258), who was the first author to accept D. microphylla as a valid species wrote down in the label a reference to the original protologue of the species.

D) Species described by other botanists

D1) Ludolf Karl Adelbert von Chamisso