Geissois trifoliolata Guillaumin

Fortune Hopkins, Helen C., 2006, Nomenclature and typification in Geissois (Cunoniaceae) in the South-West Pacific, Adansonia (3) 28 (2), pp. 311-327 : 319-320

13. Geissois trifoliolata Guillaumin

Bulletin de la Société botanique de France 87: 244 (1941) . — Types (as given in protologue): “Sans localité (Lecard [sic] 44), hauts plateaux 1200 m. (Lecard [sic]), Uaraï (Lecard [sic])”. — Lectotype (here designated): hauts plateaux, 1200 m, s.dat., reçu 20.X.1879, Lécard s.n. (P! [fl.]).

Geissois trifoliata Lécard in Lemire, La colonisation française en Nouvelle-Calédonie et Dépendances: 344 (1878), nom. inval., nom. nud.; habitat and uses given; refers to collections from Uaraï and mentions this species as no. 44, probably corresponding to the collection labelled Lécard 44.

Geissois trifolita Jeanneney, Nouvelle-Calédonie agricole: 97 (1894), nom. inval., nom. nud.; name attributed to Pancher; no specimen cited.

Remarks

The lectotype has a twig with two leaves and a detached raceme with flowers, and is the only one of the syntypes that is fertile. The leaves of other syntypes (Lécard 44, s.loc., s.dat., P! × 2; Lécard s.n., Ourai, ravins serpentineux, 13.IX.1876, P!) are very similar to one another but not an exact match for those of the lectotype. However, the label of one of these sterile sheets (Lécard s.n., Ourai) indicates that the ovary is hairy, suggesting either that the raceme has been attached to the wrong sheet and in fact belongs with the slightly smaller leaves of the syntypes, or that all the specimens are part of the same gathering. Geissois trifoliolata is a poorly known taxon with only a handful of recent collections resembling those of Lécard .

Although the epithet “ trifolita ” was attributed by Jeanneney to Pancher, the author citation of G. trifoliolata is “Guillaumin”, and not “Pancher ex Guillaumin” since Guillaumin’s name is not identical to Pancher’s.