Syzygium cumini (Linnaeus, 1753) Skeels, 1912

Prasanth, Arun, Jothi, Jeya & Vijayakumar, Atshaya, 2021, Typification of two names in Myrtaceae from Indian subcontinent, Phytotaxa 505 (3), pp. 297-300 : 297

2. Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels.

= Eugenia brachiata Roxburgh (1832: 488) . Lectotype (designated here):— INDIA. West Bengal, Howrah: AJC Bose Botanical garden (then Royal Botanical Garden, Calcutta), s.d., Roxburgh s.n. (BM000944124! image: https://data.nhm.ac.uk/object/a680eb2e-b9cc- 4166-8ebc-9d4b7dbea926/1601856000000). Figure 2 .

Note:—William Roxburgh (1814: 37) proposed the binominal E. brachiata in his work Hortus Bengalensis based on the specimen brought by ‘H. Colebrook’ from Moluccas island and grown in Botanical Garden, Calcutta. However, no description has been provided and the name is to be considered not validly published (nomen nudum; Articles 38.1 and 38.2 of ICN, Turland et al. 2018). Later, Roxburgh himself provided a description in his work Flora Indica ( Roxburgh 1832) . In the protologue he mentioned “A native of Amboyna. In the Botanical garden at Calcutta it blooms in May, the fruit ripens in July”. Stafleu and Cowan (1983: 954) stated that the major Roxburgh collection is in K and considerable sets are found in BM, BR, E, G and LIV. We could trace a specimen available in BM (BM000944124), consisting of a flowering twig with few leaves; there is annotation in the label “ Eugenia brachiata ” and “Roxburgh”. No further material was found except an illustration of Roxburgh in Icones Roxburghianae No. 1978. Hence, the specimen BM000944124 matches the protologue and is here designated as lectotype for the name. Eugenia brachiata is presently considered as a synonym of Syzygium cumini (see e. g. Soh & Parnell 2015; Byng et al. 2016).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Lectotype of Eugenia brachiata Roxburgh (BM000944124). © The Natural History Museum, London.