NOVON 10(1): 92. 2000.

A New Name in East Asian Eriocaulaceae

Zhang Zhixiang

Beijing Forestry University, Institute of Forest Botany, Xiao Zhuang, Heidian District, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China

Abstract. During preparation of the account of Eriocaulaceae for the Flora of China, volume 24, it was noticed that one species, Eriocaulon bilobatum W. L. Ma, described from China in 1991, is illegitimately named, being a later homonym of E. bilobatum Morong, which was described from Mexico in 1892. The new name (nomen novum) E. kunmingense Z. X. Zhang was proposed in 1999, but the pagination of the entire paper in which the replaced name was published was cited, rather than the pages of the protologue only, so the new name is invalid. Therefore, E. kunmingense is validated here.

Eriocaulon bilobatum W. L. Ma (1991: 301) was described from China, with the holotype specimen cited from Binchuan, in Yunnan province, and paratypes cited from Guizhou, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces. Unfortunately, the name is illegitimate under Article 53.1 of the Tokyo Code (Greuter et al., 1994) because an earlier homonym exists: E. bilobatum Morong (1892), described from Mexico. The Chinese species will be accepted by Ma et al. in their forthcoming account of Eriocaulaceae in the Flora of China, volume 24 (in press), as occurring not only in Guizhou, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces of China but also India and Vietnam. Zhang (1999: 91) also accepted the species and proposed the new name, E. kunmingense Z. X. Zhang, but the reference given for the replaced name was "E. bilotatum [sic] W.L.Ma 1991:289--314," i.e., the entire paper in which E. bilobatum was published, rather than page or pages of the protologue itself (pp. 301--303), so the new name was invalid under Article 33.2, Note 1 of the Tokyo Code. Moreover, the reference is not direct, as required by Article 33.2. Therefore, E. kunmingense is validated here. Eriocaulon kunmingense is most similar to E. leianthum W. L. Ma (1991: 303), which was described from northwest Yunnan. Eriocaulon kunmingense differs from E. leianthum in having female flowers with sepals keeled (vs. not keeled) and petals glabrous (vs. adaxially villous at center) with an emarginate (vs. acute) apex.

Acknowledgments. I thank Bruce Bartholomew (Botany Department, California Academy of Sciences) and Nicholas Turland (Missouri Botanical Garden) for extensive help in preparing the text.

Literature Cited