Epidendrum cooperianum Bateman (1867

Pessoa, Edlley M., Zocal, Kelvin H., Feitoza, Lucas H. J., Rondon-Anjos, Marcos V., Pinho, Max F., Ribeiro, Murilo G., Cabral, Thainá P. S. & Koch, Ana K., 2024, Typifications in Epidendrum species (Laeliinae, Orchidaceae) endemic to Brazil, Phytotaxa 665 (2), pp. 167-173 : 169

4. Epidendrum cooperianum Bateman (1867 : t. 5654)

Type:— BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro: neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, sine loco accurato, probably 1866, s. col. (not found). Lectotype designated here: Illustration published in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 93: t. 5654 (1867) housed in the Library of Royal Botanic Garden of Kew. Epitype designated here: BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro: Serra dos Órgãos, Rio de Janeiro, 23 Aug 1971, fl., Lindeman & Barcia 6429 (Epitype: SP 253966 photo!; isoepitypes: U 1460180 photo!, K 000878534 photo!) .

= Epidendrum longispathum Barbosa Rodrigues (1877: 56)

Type:— BRAZIL. Minas Gerais: Pedra do Picú, Itamonte , Apr , fl., Barbosa Rodrigues s.n. (lost). Lectotype designated here: Barbosa Rodrigues illustration in Iconographie des orchideés du Brésil 1: t. 21 housed in the Library of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, cited as “Tab. 378” in Barbosa Rodrigues (1877: 56).

= Epidendrum revolutum Barbosa Rodrigues (1877: 55)

Type:— BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro: Próximo de Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Nov , fl., Barbosa Rodrigues s.n. (lost). Lectotype designated here: Barbosa Rodrigues illustration in Iconographie des orchideés du Brésil 1: t. 19 housed in the Library of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, cited as “Tab. 183” in Barbosa Rodrigues (1877: 55).

Notes: Epidendrum cooperianum was described by Bateman (1867), but the collector is unknown. Bateman was a British horticulturist who sent collectors to the Neotropics to collect living orchids ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976). He named E. cooperianum after Mr. Cooper, an orchid enthusiast who owned Alpha House. Bateman’s type specimens are supposed to be at K, but we did not find them there or other herbaria. It is not uncommon to find examples of names published at the XIX century that were based on living material with no herbarium specimen ( Saka et al. 2017), and it seems to be the case of E. cooperianum . Following the Code, the illustration provided in the protologue ( Bateman 1867, t. 5654), currently housed at the Library of Royal Botanic Garden of Kew, is designated as the lectotype. However, an epitype is still necessary due the weird colour of the illustration (Art. 9.9 of the Code). We found three adequate specimens and propose the material collected by Lindeman & Barcia (n. 6429) in Rio de Janeiro, deposited in SP in Brazil, as epitype.

Ten years after publication of E. cooperianum, Barbosa Rodrigues (1877) described E. revolutum , also based in a material from Rio de Janeiro State. Today, E. revolutum is considered a heterotypic synonym of E. cooperianum ( Pessoa 2020) . Unfortunately, the types of Barbosa Rodrigues were likely destroyed by a flood ( Sprunger et al. 1996). The illustration provided in the protologue ( Barbosa Rodrigues, 1877, tab. 19), currently housed at the Barbosa Rodrigues Library of the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro ( BRL / JBRJ) as “tab. 183”, is designated as the lectotype. Similarly, Barbosa Rodrigues (1881) described E. longispathum from Minas Gerais, now considered another heterotypic synonym of E. cooperianum ( Pessoa 2020) . The lectotype is indicated as the illustration in the protologue ( Barbosa Rodrigues, 1877, tab. 21), also housed at BRL / JBRJ as “tab. 378”.