Syzygium calophyllifolium (Wight) Walpers (1843: 180)

Singh, Rajeev Kumar & Arigela, Ravi Kiran, 2020, Lectotypifications and new synonyms in Indian Syzygium (Myrtaceae), Phytotaxa 429 (3), pp. 200-216 : 203

2. Syzygium calophyllifolium (Wight) Walpers (1843: 180) . = Eugenia calophyllifolia Wight (1841: 17 ; 1845 –1846: 11, tab. 1000). Lectotype (designated here):— INDIA. Tamil Nadu: Nilgiris district, Ootacamund (Ooty), s.d., R. Wight s.n. (upper specimen of MH00006604!; isolectotypes lower and upper specimen of K000821347!, lower specimen of MH00006604!).

Distribution:— India, southern Western Ghats (Kerala and Tamil Nadu), endemic.

Notes:— Eugenia calophyllifolia was described by Wight (1841) based on the specimens collected from Ootacamund (Ooty), but no type was indicated. In the protologue, he mentioned only the precise locality but did not provide the date of collection, number, and name of herbarium where specimens housed. One herbarium sheet with two specimens of E. calophyllifolia collected by Wight from Ootacamund is traced at MH (MH00006604), and the upper specimen ( Figure 2 ) of this sheet is designated here as the lectotype as it agrees well with the protologue. The herbarium sheet at the K (K000821347) with two specimens is duplicate of MH specimen, but it lacks annotation of locality by Wight. Some more specimens of E. calophyllifolia collected by Wight from Neelgherry (Nilgiri) were also traced (E00179122, K000821349, L2503886, M0171219, MEL2435662, P04682145 and W1889-0051275), but these are not original material because collected in September 1848 after publication of the protologue.

Eugenia calophyllifolia was formally described by Wight in his Illustrations of Indian Botany (1841: 17) , but all Indian literature, The Plant List (2013), Catalogue of Life (2019), Tropicos (2019) and WCSP (2019) cited Wight in Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis (1845: 11, tab. 1000). Walpers (1843) correctly cited that E. calophyllifolia was described by Wight in Illustrations of Indian Botany.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Lectotype of Eugenia calophyllifolia Wight (upper specimen of MH00006604, © Madras Herbarium, Botanical Survey of India, SRC, Coimbatore).