2.9. 1. Aspicarpa Rich., Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. 2: 396–400, pl. 13. 1815.

= Acosmus Desv., J. Bot. Agric. 3: 229. 1816. Type species: Acosmus pruriens Desv. (= Aspicarpa hirtella Rich.).

= Gaudichaudia Kunth, Nov. Gen. Sp. (quarto ed.) 5: pl. 445. 1821, syn. nov. Type species: Gaudichaudia cynanchoides Kunth [≡ Aspicarpa cynanchoides (Kunth) Hassl.].

= Gaudichaudia [unranked] Tritomopterys A. Juss. ex Endl., Gen. Pl. 1058. 1840 ≡ Tritomopterys (A. Juss. ex Endl.) Nied., Arbeiten Bot. Inst. Königl. Lyceums Hosianum Braunsberg 4: 28. 1912. Type species (designated here): Gaudichaudia confertiflora A. Juss. [≡ Aspicarpa confertiflora (A. Juss.) R. F. Almeida & M. Pell.].

= Rosanthus Small in Britton & al., N. Amer. Fl. 25: 131. 1910. Type species: Rosanthus subverticellatus (Rose) Small [≡ Aspicarpa subverticillata (Rose) Hassl.].

Type species.

Aspicarpa hirtella Rich.

Notes.

In its current circumscription, Aspicarpa (now including Gaudichaudia) comprises 27 species (ten threatened species; Suppl. material 1) of shrubs, subshrubs or lianas with a long and tortuous taxonomic history. Most species have already been placed in the genera Banisteria (= Heteropterys Kunth), Gaudichaudia, Hiraea, Triopterys [= Mascagnia (Bertero ex DC.) Bertero], and Tritomopterys . However, Aspicarpa sensu W. R. Anderson is greatly non-monophyletic, with a South American clade recovered sister to Janusia s. str. and the mostly North and Central American species recovered mixed with Gaudichaudia . Thus, Gaudichaudia and the mostly North and Central American species of Aspicarpa are combined here, while the exclusively South American clade is proposed as a new genus, Mamedea (see below).

Most of the morphological diversity found in Aspicarpa s. lat. (especially the production of cleistogamous flowers and variation in the number of style number) might be attributed to polyploidy events (Jessup 2003). Aspicarpa species occur in seasonally dry tropical forests from North America (Mexico and the United States), Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua), to northern South America (Colombia and Venezuela; POWO 2024). No complete revision is available for the current circumscription of Aspicarpa or any of the previous circumscriptions of Aspicarpa and Gaudichaudia . A taxonomic revision of this genus is urgently needed, and species boundaries are especially fuzzy in the former Gaudichaudia .