Ochna nitida sensu DC.

Wijnands, Dirk Onno, Heniger, Johannes, Veldkamp, Jan Frederik, Fumeaux, Nicolas & Callmander, Martin W., 2017, The botanical legacy of Martinus Houttuyn (1720 - 1798) in Geneva, Candollea 72 (1), pp. 155-198 : 181

68. Ochna nitida sensu DC.

in Ann. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. 17: 412. 1811 [non O. nitida Sw. ].

= Ochna jabotapita L. , Sp. Pl.: 513. 1753 .

Notes. – CANDOLLE (1811, 1824) identified and depicted a Thunberg collection from Ceylon in the Houttuyn herbarium (“v.s. in h. Deless.”) as “ Ochna nitida Thunb. ” He noted that the species came from “ India orient.”, but created confusion by citing “Thunb. prod. 67”. The cited page of this work ( THUNBERG, 1794a) lists taxa of Hexandria, whereas Ochna L. belongs to the Polyandria monogynia, which are dealt with in the second volume ( THUNBERG, 1800: 92), although no Ochna are listed there. “ Ochna nitida Thunb. ” is cited twice by THUNBERG (1794b: 132; 1825: 7) as a nom. nud. ( JUEL, 1918: 251).

It is clear that de CANDOLLE (1811, 1824) mistakenly cited THUNBERG’s Prodromus (1794a) when he actually intended to cite that of SWARTZ (1788). This is even more obvious from the description of the name, where de CANDOLLE (1811: 412) wrote “ calyci aequalia juxta Thunbergium”, referring to SWARTZ (1788: 67): “calycibus corolla aeqvalibus”.

Ochna nitida Sw. refers to a Roger Shakespear material from Jamaica, whereas de Candolle’s misapplication of that name refers to a plant from Ceylon currently known as O. jabotapita L.

KANIS (1987: 248) designated a specimen in G-DC as the type of “ Ochna nitida Thunb. ex DC. ” but this misapplied name has no nomenclatural status.

Material of Ochna jabotapita L. (= O. nitida sensu DC. ) is present in the Thunberg herbarium (UPS-THUNB n° 12528, n° 12539 and n° 12540) and in G-DC [G00310780, G00310781]). The latter two sheets are from Houttuyn’s herbarium but were originally in the Delessert herbarium, and were probably incorporated by de Candolle in his own herbarium, as no specimen has been located in G-PREL.