Dioscorea microflora Raz, 2016

Raz, Lauren, 2016, Untangling the West Indian Dioscoreaceae: New combinations, lectotypification and synonymy, Phytotaxa 258 (1), pp. 26-48 : 36

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.258.1.2
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/C539884B-FF8F-913C-FF70-FF2F0874FCE7
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Dioscorea microflora Raz
status	nom. nov.

Treatment

10. Dioscorea microflora Raz View in CoL , nom. nov. Rajania angustifolia Swartz (1788:59) . Lectotype (designated here):— HISPANIOLA. Swartz s.n. [lectotype S! (♂), isolectotypes S! (the three remaining sheets (2♀ + 1♂) labeled “ India Occidentali”)]. The type locality was likely from what is now the Dominican Republic, but this cannot be interpreted from the specimen

Rajania minutiflora Knuth (1917: 221) . Type:— HAITI. Anse a Veau, no date, Picarda 1283 ♂ (holotype B!, isotypes GH!, K!). The holotype was explicitly designated by Knuth in 1924.

Notes: Endemic to Hispaniola. This is the original R. angustifolia Sw. (see D. quinquefolia View in CoL for a history of the misapplication of this name). The Swartz type at S consists of four sheets: they are not cross-labelled, and as such they are considered duplicates. Not having seen the Swartz material, Knuth (1917) misapplied the name to narrow leaved plants of D. quinquefolia View in CoL and he described the Swartz species anew as R. minutiflora . Neither this epithet nor “angustifolia ” is available in Dioscorea View in CoL , and a new name is selected here.

Dioscorea microflora and D. quinquefolia converge in leaf outline, but the two can be diagnosed as follows: in D. microflora , the secondary veins of the leaves are reticulate, forming aerioles, or terminating in free ends. The secondary veins of D. quinquefolia , are straight and parallel, departing from the midvein (and/or lateral primary veins) at acute angles and anastomosing with the adjacent primary veins. Minute pseudostipular spines are absent in D. microflora , but typically present in D. quinquefolia . The staminate flowers of D. microflora are sessile, arranged in scorpioid cymes, while those of D. quinquefolia are pedicellate, the pedicels of varying lengths. Both have tiny flowers, but D. microflora has striate pollen, versus the perforate-reticulate pollen of D. quinquefolia .