Taxonomic and geographic notes on the neotropical Commelina (Commelinaceae)

Abstract

I present here taxonomic and geographic notes to advance the taxonomic and geographic knowledge of the neotropical Commelina (Commelinaceae). More specifically, I re-establish C. dielsii, a yellow-flowered species only known from the type collected in north-eastern Argentina, which is morphologically allied to C. erecta and C. catharinensis; I lectotypify and re-establish C. longicaulis, and I present evidence that this is the correct name for the species currently being called C. schomburgkiana; I lectotypify C. pallida and C. scabra; and I also lectotypify the names C. gracilis and C. prostrata (synonyms of C. diffusa), C. angustifolia, C. bahiensis, C. caripensis, C. crispa, C. elegans, C. roseo-purpurea and C. sulcata (synonyms of C. erecta), and C. acuminata Kunth, C. cayennensis var. pubescens, C. coelestis, C. fasciculata, C. graminifolia and C. scapigera (synonyms of C. tuberosa). In total, 18 names are here lectotypified, and eight synonymisations are newly proposed. Furthermore, I also present the first records of C. tuberosa in Chile, which are also the first records of the occurrence of a native Commelina species in this country. Finally, I provide an identification key to the 11 species of Commelina that occur in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guyana, Paraguay, Suriname and Uruguay.

Keywords:

• Chile
• identification key
• new records
• nomenclature
• South America
• taxonomy
• typification

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Robert Vogt (Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem), José Luis Fernández Alonso and Inés Elena Martín Hernández (Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid), Federico Fabriani and Aurélie Grall (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Laurent Gautier (Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève), Ernst Vitek (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien), Nora Muruaga (Fundación Miguel Lillo), Ingrid Lin and John Boggan (Smithsonian Institution), Amy Weiss (New York Botanical Garden) and Marc Appelhans (Universität Göttingen) for loaning specimens, sending images of herbarium specimens and/or providing important information for this study, and two anonymous reviewers for contributing to improve this paper. I also acknowledge three SYNTHESYS grants for visits to K, MA and P herbaria (processes GB-TAF-5317, ES-TAF-6610 and FR-TAF-6529).