Clarifying the nomenclature of Strychnosbredemeyeri and Lasiostoma (Loganiaceae)

TL;DR

This paper clarifies the naming and classification of the plant species Strychnos bredemeyeri and related taxa in the Loganiaceae family.

Contribution

The study resolves nomenclatural confusion by lectotypifying and synonymizing key species and genera in the Strychnos genus.

Findings

Lasiostoma is confirmed as a synonym of Strychnos.

Strychnos pedunculata and S. trinitensis are lectotypified as synonyms of S. bredemeyeri.

The nomenclatural status of Strychnos bredemeyeri is clarified based on historical and type material.

Abstract

Strychnos (Loganiaceae, Gentianales) is a large and pantropical genus of woody plants, ethnobotanically important as a source of many toxic alkaloids, including strychnine. Unfortunately, the status of numerous names at various ranks of Strychnos remains unresolved, including that of many specific or infraspecific taxa in the Neotropics. In this study, we address Strychnosbredemeyeri (basionym Lasiostomabredemeyeri), a species described in 1827 based on type material collected in Venezuela during the poorly documented Austrian Märter expedition (1783–1788). Strychnosbredemeyeri is an unarmed liana with solitary tendrils and axillary inflorescences that occurs in Neotropical rainforests and savannas in Brazil, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. We clarify here the nomenclatural status of Lasiostoma Schreb., an illegitimate and superfluous genus currently in synonymy under Strychnos, and its former species Lasiostomabredemeyeri [= Strychnosbredemeyeri]. Also, we lectotypify S.pedunculata and S.trinitensis, both taxa currently synonyms of S.bredemeyeri.

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