Lepidocupania inoplea (Radlk.) Buerki, Callm., Munzinger & Lowry

Buerki, Sven, Munzinger, Jérôme, Lowry Ii, Porter P. & Callmander, Martin W., 2020, Two new genera of Sapindaceae (Cupanieae) from the southern Pacific: Lepidocupania and Neoarytera, Candollea 75 (2), pp. 269-284 : 277

Lepidocupania inoplea (Radlk.) Buerki, Callm., Munzinger & Lowry , comb. nov.

≡ Cupaniopsis inoplea Radlk. in Sitzungsber. Math.-Phys. CI. Konigl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. Munich 9: 589. 1879.

Lectotypus (designated here): NEW CALEDONIA. Prov. Nord: Mt. Poum, V.1871, Balansa 3307 ( P [ P00639140 ]!; isolecto-: P [ P00639141 , P00639142 ]!).

Distribution and ecology. – Lepidocupania inoplaea , as circumscribed by ADEMA (1991), is endemic to the archipelago of New Caledonia, where it occurs in the northwestern part of Grande Terre and two of the Loyalty Islands (Lifou and Maré). It is found in maquis vegetation and gallery forest on serpentinite and schist, from sea level to 700 m.

Notes. – Cupaniopsis inoplea was described based on Balansa 3307. Original material at P is mounted on three sheets, two of which [ P00639140 , P00639141 ] bear the following note in Radlkofer’s hand: “ Cupaniopsis inoplaea m. Radlk.” Here we designate the most complete and best-preserved of these two sheets [ P00639140 ] as the lectotype.

It has come to our attention that the original spelling of the epithet, ‘ inoplea ’, was changed to ‘ inoplaea ’ by GUILLAUMIN (1948) and ADEMA (1991), but the rules of nomenclature do not justify this change, and we therefore retain the original spelling, as proposed by RADLKOFER (1879b).

ADEMA (1991) did not indicate that this species grows on calcareous substrate, although two collections cited in his monograph from the Loyalty Islands (Schmid 677 and MacKee (Leg. Suprin) 43447) were gathered without doubt from calcareous sites. Further study will be needed to determine whether these collections belong to Lepidocupania inoplea or another species.