Pistacia miolentiscus Doweld, 2018

Doweld, Alexander B., 2018, Palaeoflora Europaea: Notulae Systematicae ad Palaeofloram Europaeam spectantes I. New names of fossil magnoliophytes of the European Tertiary. I. Miscellaneous families, Phytotaxa 379 (1), pp. 78-94 : 79

Pistacia miolentiscus Doweld , nom. nov.

≡ Pistacia lentiscoides Andreánszky & Cziffery-Szilégyi (in Andreánszky 1959: 154, pl. 45: 4, text-fig. 179), nom. illeg. non Pistacia lentiscoides Unger (1850: 473) .

Type:—[fossil leaves] Erdőbénye, Hungary (holotype, BP 541591, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary).

Occurrence:—Miocene; Europe.

Eponymy:—From Miocene, a geological epoch and Pistacia lentiscus Linnaeus (1753: 1026) .

IFPNI: 90DCEE61-B9B0-1592-A2EC-32C695638E62.

Note:—The fossil-species Pistacia lentiscoides Andreánszky & Cziffery (in Andreánszky 1959) is related to the extant species Pistacia lentiscus Linnaeus (1753: 1026) . However, it is a later illegitimate homonym of the long-established fossil-species Pistacia lentiscoides Unger (1850) , which was based originally on the fossil foliage from the Miocene of Parschlug (Styria, Austria). However, no authentic original specimens were identified in the Unger’s collections in Graz and Vienna from Parschlug. Schimper (1874: 268) doubted whether Unger really described fossil-species of Pistacia , noticing that his later published illustrations ( Unger 1860: 46, pl. 21, fig. 14) pointed out that Unger’s species more likely represents a leaf of Rhus zanthoxyloides Unger (1850) . Since P. lentiscoides Unger is evidently a nomen dubium with no possibility to re-study its original status due to the lack of authentic materials, it is proposed to change the preoccupied name of reliable Pistacia fossil-species, P. lentiscoides Andreánszky & Cziffery non Unger, for its further use in palaeobotanical systematics.