Revisiting the nomenclature of Carludovica microcephala , type species of Dicranopygium (Cyclanthaceae)

Abstract

The name Carludovica microcephala , basionym of the type species of Dicranopygium (Cyclanthaceae), has long been attributed to J.D. Hooker (1892), based on plants cultivated at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. A reassessment of nineteenth‐century horticultural literature shows that the name had already been validly published 35 years earlier, in 1857, by Carl David Bouché in an account of cultivated Cyclanthaceae at the Berlin Botanic Garden. This earlier publication has been consistently overlooked in subsequent taxonomic and nomenclatural treatments. Examination of archival correspondence, unpublished manuscript descriptions, herbarium specimens, and historical horticultural sources further indicates that the cultivated plants associated with the name most likely originated from Venezuela rather than Costa Rica, as traditionally assumed. Because no original material associated with Bouché's validating publication could be confidently identified, Carludovica microcephala C.D.Bouché is here neotypified using the specimen previously designated as lectotype of C. microcephala Hook.f. This action renders the two names homotypic and allows correction of the basionym authorship of Dicranopygium microcephalum under Art. 41.3 of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants , thereby stabilizing the nomenclature of the genus.