Vanilla acuta Rolfe

1. Vanilla acuta Rolfe View in CoL ( Rolfe 1896: 453)

Fig. 1 A, B View Figure 1

Type.

SURINAME – Marowyne • Aug. 1846; Kappler 1843; lectotype (designated here): K! (tracings of the lectotype at W! [ W 21429 , W 33544 ]); isolectotypes: W! [ W 62925 , pocket label as “ Vanilla Marowyne fl. flavidis Kappler ”], P! [ P 00612143 ]. Epitype (designated here) : GUYANA (British Guiana) • Berbice River ; illustration by Robert H. Schomburgk, plate 216–267; BM! (photo of the epitype at NY!, tracings of the epitype at K! [ K 001551121 ] and W! [ W 19383 , W 19384 ]) .

Notes.

Two tracings of the lectotype are deposited in W [ W 21429, W 33544 View Materials ]. Three tracings of the epitype are deposited in K [ K 001551121] and in W [ W 19383, W 19384]. A photograph of the epitype is deposited in NY.

When describing Vanilla acuta, Rolfe (1896) cited a plant collected by A. Kappler in Suriname as the only specimen and mentioned that a drawing made by Schomburgk at BM should belong to his species. Although Rolfe’s publication explicitly states his affiliation with Kew and mentions that he examined two Klotzsch type specimens on loan from B, as well as material from BM, it is difficult to ascertain with certainty which specimens belonged to K, B, or BM, or whether he consulted a combination of these. This ambiguity arises from his inconsistent specification of herbarium sources for the specimens he reviewed. For instance, in the cases of V. hamata Klotzsch and V. ruiziana Klotzsch — most likely the two Klotzsch types referenced in his introduction — Rolfe did not explicitly indicate material examined at B. Similarly, for BM, although some specimens and illustrations are cited as “ Mus. Brit. ” or “ British Museum, ” it remains ambiguous whether these were the only sources from which he examined specimens.

Among the two original materials cited by Rolfe for V. acuta , a specimen matching the protologue was identified in the Lindley Herbarium ( K) and is hereby designated as the lectotype. Additionally, a review of the Reichenbach Herbarium in Vienna ( W) revealed a tracing and an immature flower unequivocally linked to Kappler 1843, which is designated as an isolectotype. Furthermore, a specimen in the Herbarium of Paris ( P 00612143) is highly likely to correspond to the Kappler collection, despite its label attributing the collection to Hostmann. The collection number, date, and locality align with those in Lindley’s Herbarium, and both bear his tentative determination as “ V. claviculata aff. ” Notably, both specimens were curated by Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker, and historical records confirm that Kappler collected plants for Hostmann in Suriname ( de Vries 2022).

Given the poor condition of the type flowers, the Schomburgk illustration is designated as the epitype to better clarify Rolfe’s proposal of this taxon.