Euphorbia cyathophora Murray (1786: 81–83

Hassemer, Gustavo, Silva, Otávio Luis Marques Da, Funez, Luís Adriano, Ernst, Madeleine, Cordeiro, Inês & Rønsted, Nina, 2017, Updates on the genus Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae) in Santa Catarina, Brazil, Phytotaxa 298 (3), pp. 222-238 : 224-228

Euphorbia cyathophora Murray (1786: 81–83 , tab. 1)

Lectotype (designated here): —COUNTRY UNKNOWN ( Tab. 1 in Murray 1786).

Epitype (designated here): — GERMANY. “ Euphorbia cyathophora . Ex Hort. bot. Gött. [leg.] 1794” Anonymous s.n. (MO-3836231!) ( Fig. 1 ).

Illustrations: — Tab. 1 in Murray (1786).

Photographs: — Fig. 2 .

Distribution and habitat: — Euphorbia cyathophora is a pantropical weed originally native to Central America ( Christenhusz 2002), naturalised in Brazil, where it grows mainly on disturbed environments, but also in natural coastal herbaceous vegetation (restingas); it is also a cultivated plant in Brazil. We present here the first records of the occurrence of this species in SC, where it has been collected in the following municipalities: Bombinhas, Itapoá, Navegantes and Porto Belo ( Fig. 3 ).

Conservation status: —Least Concern (LC).

Notes: —Johan Andreas Murray (1740–1791) was a Swedish botanist of German descent, born in Stockholm, who did most of his botanical work and died in Göttingen, Germany. A pupil of Linnaeus (1707–1778), Murray published many plant species names, most of which are very difficult to typify ( Hedge 1967). After his death his herbarium was sold to the British Museum, where a very small part of it is still kept, while the rest of it was further sold elsewhere, and its current whereabouts is not known.

We have confirmation that no original material for E. cyathophora is kept at GOET (Marc Appelhans, pers. comm.) or at BM (Ranee Prakash and Jonathan Gregson, pers. comm.). Furthermore, despite extensive search, we have been unable to locate any herbarium specimens that could be considered original material of E. cyathophora . Therefore, in accordance with Art. 9.12, we designate here the illustration in Murray (1786) ( Tab. 1, loc. cit.) as the lectotype for this name. This same lectotype had been cited by Christenhusz (2002), as “type”, who however failed to effectively typify this name by not specifying that the chosen type was a lectotype (Art. 9.23).

One sheet in the Bernhardi Herbarium (MO-3836231), which was acquired by MO in 1857 (James C. Solomon, pers. comm.), is labelled “ Euphorbia cyathophora . Ex Hort. bot. Gött. 1794 ”. This implies that it is certainly not original material of E. cyathophora , since the date on the specimen is eight years after the publication of the name. However, the specimen may possibly be derived from original plant(s) in cultivation, since Murray was in Göttingen when E. cyathophora was described. Since we were unable to locate any herbarium specimens that could be considered original material for this name, we hereby designate this specimen (MO-3836231) as the epitype of E. cyathophora , to facilitate the interpretation of the lectotype, in accordance with Art. 9.8.

Material examined: — BRAZIL. Santa Catarina: Bombinhas, Área Costeira de Zimbros , restinga, 29 January 2012, A. Nuernberg & A. S. Mello 520 (FLOR-58012) ; Itapoá, Praia de Itapema , 15 March 1989, A. C. Cervi 2642 (MBM-131127) ; Navegantes, Gravatá , ruderal, 13 January 2014, L. A. Funez 2640 (FURB-43272) ; Porto Belo, estrada Porto Belo–Tijucas , em mata preservada, 17 March 2013, L. A. Funez 1967 (FURB-40791) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Image of the epitype of Euphorbia cyathophora (MO-3836231). Published with permission of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

FIGURE 2. Euphorbia cyathophora in Porto Belo, Santa Catarina. A. Detail of inflorescence. B. Detail of the environment.

FIGURE 3. Distribution map of Euphorbia cyathophora (yellow stars), E. graminea (green diamond), E. ophthalmica (blue triangle) and E. thymifolia (red dots) in Santa Catarina.