Graffenrieda rotundifolia (Bonpl.) de Candolle (1828: 106)

Murillo-Serna, Jhon S., Michelangeli, Fabián A. & Alzate-Guarín, Fernando, 2019, Typification of some names of Graffenrieda (Melastomataceae: Merianieae), Phytotaxa 391 (2), pp. 131-137 : 134-135

Graffenrieda rotundifolia (Bonpl.) de Candolle (1828: 106)

≡ Rhexia rotundifolia Bonpland (1823: 66)

Type (lectotype, designated here):— VENEZUELA. “Isla de Panumana”, s.d., A. Bonpland & A. von Humboldt 1152 (P00136458 [digital image!], isolectotype P00136459 [fragments] [digital image!]).

Notes: When Bonpland (1823) described Rhexia rotundifolia he did not designate the type as it was not required at that time. The original description includes an illustration (plate 25), but although mentioning the locality of Caripe in Nova Andalucía [now Venezuela], it does not mention any specimen. When Candolle (1828) transferred this species to Graffenrieda he mentioned the illustration and the Richard herbarium. This herbarium is now at P and contains most Bonpland and Humboldt’s collections. There are two specimens of Rhexia rotundifolia collected by Bonpland and Humboldt and one of these specimens, Bonpland & A. von Humboldt 1152 (P00136458), perfectly matches the illustration and was surely the base of it. However, this specimen bears a label with the locality as “ Isla de Panumana” which is in the Orinoco River. This species is endemic to the savannas and rocks along the middle Orinoco and it is not known to occur in the forests around Caripe ( Wurdack 1973). This error was already noted by Wurdack (1973), and it is considered an error to be corrected (see Turland et al. 2018; art. 9.2).