Croton submetallicus Baill., Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Paris 2: 966. 1891, as 'submetallicum'

Berry, Paul E., Kainulainen, Kent & Ee, Benjamin W. van, 2017, A Nomenclator of Croton (Euphorbiaceae) in Madagascar, the Comoros Archipelago, and the Mascarene Islands, PhytoKeys 90, pp. 1-87 : 57-58

114. Croton submetallicus Baill., Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Paris 2: 966. 1891, as 'submetallicum'

Croton chapelieri var. longepetiolata Radcl.-Sm., Gen. Croton Madag. Comoro 152. 2016, syn. nov. Type. Madagascar. Prov. Toamasina: W of Vavatenina , Réserve Naturelle Intégrale Zahamena, Amboditamenaka Forest, 17°44'S, 49°00'E, 15-20 Sep 1993, S. Malcomber B. Rasolondraibe, L.M. Randrianjanaka & J.P. Abraham 2511 (holotype: K!; isotypes: MO [MO-2990285]!, P [P00433109]!).

Croton fianarantsoae var. obovalifolius Radcl.-Sm., Gen. Croton Madag. Comoro 155. 2016, syn. nov. Type. Madagascar. Prov. Fianarantsoa: W of Ranomafana, 21°16'S, 47°28'E, 8-10 Sep 1992, S. Malcomber & R. Rakoto 1550 (holotype: K; isotypes: MO, P [P00422460]!).

Croton nitidulus var. acuminatus Radcl.-Sm., Gen. Croton Madag. Comoro 169. 2016, syn. nov. Type. Madagascar. Prov. Toamasina: Itinéraire de Didy à Brickaville ( forêt orientale), reçu Apr 1954, G. Cours 4871 (lectotype, designated here: P [P00133641]!; isolectotypes: P [P00133639]!; P [P00133640]!; P [P00133642]!).

Croton nitidulus var. cinereus Radcl.-Sm., Gen. Croton Madag. Comoro 170. 2016, syn. nov. Type. Madagascar. Prov. Toamasina: Ambatovy, 18°51'34"S, 48°18'25"E, 3 Mar 1997, P. Rakotomalaza et al. 1217 (holotype: K!; isotype: MO!).

Croton nitidulus var. hypopoliotes Radcl.-Sm., Gen. Croton Madag. Comoro 172. 2016, syn. nov. Type. Madagascar. "Central Madagascar", received Dec 1883, R. Baron s.n. (holotype: K!).

Croton nitidulus var. macrophyllus Radcl.-Sm., Gen. Croton Madag. Comoro 172. 2016, syn. nov. Type. Madagascar. Prov. Toamasina: Itinéraire de Didy à Brickaville ( forêt orientale), s.d., G. Cours 4660 (lectoype, designated here: P [P00133616]!; isolectotypes: P [P00133615]!, P [P00133617]!).

Croton submetallicus var. tomentosus Radcl.-Sm., Gen. Croton Madag. Comoro 58. 2016, syn. nov. Type. Madagascar. Prov. Toamasina: forêt de l’Analamazaotra, reçu 3 Dec 1934, E. Ursch 21 (holotype: P [P00133354]!).

Type.

Madagascar. sin. loc., s.d., R. Baron 5286 (lectotype, designated here: K [K000422582]!; isolectotypes: K [K000422581]!, P [P00133327]!) . Madagascar. Prov. Toamasina: Alaotra-Mangoro Region. Forest W of Eulophiella Hotel, south of Rn 2 and Andasibe, 18°59'08"S, 48°25'55"E, 900 m, 15 Aug 2015, B. van Ee, P.E. Berry & H. Razafindraibe 2222 (epitype, designated here: MICH [MICH1514786]!; additional duplicates: G, K, MO, P, TAN, US) .

Habit and distribution.

Shrubs or trees; eastern montane forests of Madagascar (Fianarantsoa, Toamasina).

Notes.

The type of Croton submetallicus is deficient for characterizing this species properly; it lacks pistillate flowers, which are very diagnostic. Therefore we are designating an epitype that is well distributed, has photographs in Tropicos®, and is also sampled molecularly. The only other described species name that could be applied here is C. macrochlamys , but it has a very poor type specimen, and we are treating it here as a synonym of C. nitidulus because of its smaller leaf size.

For Croton nitidulus var. acuminatus , Radcliffe-Smith (2016) designated Cours 4871 at P as the holotype, but there are four nearly identical specimens of this collection at P, so we selected one of them here as lectotype. Likewise, for C. nitidulus var. macrophyllus , Radcliffe-Smith (2016) designated Cours 4660 at P as the holotype, but since there are three duplicates of that collection there, we selected one of them as the lectotype.