Garcinia quadrifaria chromocarpa (Engl.) Sosef & Dauby, 2012

Sosef, Marc S. M. & Dauby, Gilles, 2012, Contribution to the taxonomy of Garcinia (Clusiaceae) in Africa, including two new species from Gabon and a key to the Lower Guinean species, PhytoKeys 17, pp. 41-62 : 43

Garcinia quadrifaria chromocarpa (Engl.) Sosef & Dauby comb. nov.

Garcinia chromocarpa Engl., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 40: 561 (1908). [Basionym]

Garcinia echirensis Pellegr., Bull. Soc. Bot. France 106: 225 (1959). [Heterotypic synonym]

Garcinia parva Spirlet, Bull. Jard. Bot. État Bruxelles 29: 326 (1959). [Heterotypic synonym]

Subsequently, we have studied the West-African species Garcinia gnetoides Hutch. & Dalziel. The type material at K, Chevalier 15157, consists of a plant carrying terminal inflorescences with a dense mass of many racemes composed of a short rachis with closely set bracts which are glabrous. In Garcinia quadrifaria each raceme normally appears solitary. An old note attached to the type already states it might well be a galled inflorescence, because a larva was observed inside. Hutchinson and Dalziel are well aware of its potentially diseased nature which shows from their remark in the Flora of West tropical Africa ( Hutchinson and Dalziel 1927). However, in their more elaborate 1928 publication they do not mention the galled inflorescence. They cite two other specimens apart from the type (Chevalier 15620 and Vigne 222) and these have normal, solitary racemes. Besides that, they cite Xanthochymus quadrifarius A.Chev. non Oliv. as belonging here. So, they were aware of the fact that this plant had some relation to that species, transferred to Garcinia by Pierre in 1883 (see above). Their plants had no fruits. In the same 1928 publication they describe another new species, Garcinia granulata , citing a single specimen, Unwin & Smythe 58, that bears only fruits which are verrucose and glabrous.

After careful examination of all material at hand, we cannot conclude otherwise than that both Garcinia gnetoides and Garcinia granulata represent the same species known to us as Garcinia quadrifaria and thus are synonyms of the latter. The fact that the first two are in fact synonymous was already concluded by Hawthorne and Jongkind (2006).

Some sources cite the publication of the names Garcinia gnetoides and Garcinia granulata in Kew Bulletin ( Hutchinson and Dalziel 1928) as the place of valid publication, and not that of one year earlier in the Flora of West tropical Africa ( Hutchinson and Dalziel 1927). In the latter publication the authors indeed seem to indicate the names will be formally published later on by adding “ined.”, meaning ineditus (unpublished), behind "Kew Bull.". However, this does not render their 1927 publication invalid. Article 34.1b of the Code ( McNeil et al. 2006) does not apply, because they do accept the taxa.

So, in conclusion, the new situation is as follows: