Biophytum madurense, 1930

Neotypification of Biophytum madurense

Knuth (1930) described Biophytum madurense based on a single (?) specimen kept at B and collected by Sauliere (n. 30) in 1913 from “Shunbagannur” (Shembaganur) in Madura district, Tamil Nadu. This species is characterized by “17 to 20 jugate, linear—rectangular leaflets with pointed tip and obliquely rounded or blunt bases. Flowers with 3 mm long bracts and up to 5 mm long pedicels, petals twice longer than the calyces”. The type specimen (Sauliere 30) kept at B was destroyed during World War II ( Hiepko 1987). According to Matthew (1981: 460), a duplicate was preserved at SHC, later transferred to RHT, and material was sent for determination to K and CAL. However, no duplicates of Sauliere 30 could be located by us at any of these herbaria. Sauliere (1914) published a list of his collections in which his number 30 was determined as B. sensitivum . Since its discovery, B. madurense neither had been cited nor recollected from India or elsewhere. Manna (1997), in his recent treatment of Biophytum for India, did not report this species for no obvious reasons. Moreover, the lack of type material and illustrations, as well as the scanty Latin description, makes B. madurense an enigmatic species. Several subsequent extensive explorations in Shembaganur and nearby areas of the Pulney hills failed to recollect it (J. Britto, pers. comm.). The senior author [JD] conducted a series of plant explorations in 2018–2020 to the above region and collected another branched species of Biophytum occurring in Pulney hills, which was determined as B. intermedium var. pulneyense . Perusal of literature and examination of the type specimen housed at K (R. Wight n. 302, K000693144!) and the comparison of descriptions strongly suggest that B. madurense and B. intermedium var. pulneyense represent only a single taxon (Table 1). In addition, following a comparative study of B. intermedium var. pulneyense with var. intermedium , we concluded that they were best treated as different species rather than two conspecific varieties (Table 1). Even though the name B. intermedium var. pulneyense antedates B. madurense , a name has no priority outside the rank at which it is published (Art. 11.2 of ICN). Since the name B. madurense is legitimate and validly published, it is the first available name at species rank. Hence, the name B. intermedium var. pulneyense is here reduced to the synonym of B. madurense .

Since no other original material (Art. 9.7 of ICN) could be located, a neotype (Arts. 9.11 and 9.13 of ICN) is designated here for B. madurense from Pulney hills. The neotype specimen is housed at TBGT and an isotype in MH.