Clarification of synonymy for the common moth‐vine Araujia sericifera (Asclepiadaceae)

Abstract

A species of Araujia Brot. (Fig. 1), originating from South America, is commonly naturalized in temperate and subtropical regions around the world such as North America (Spellman & Gunn, 1976), Australia (Kleinschmidt & Johnson, 1979; Pearce, 1986) and southern Africa (Dyer, 1975). In southern Africa (Henderson & Anderson, 1966) and in North America (Spellman & Gunn, 1976) it has been called A. sericifera Brot., whereas in Australia it is called A. hortorum Fourn. (Kleinschmidt & Johnson, 1979; Pearce, 1986). Several authors (e.g. Spellman & Gunn, 1976) have continued to use the incorrect spelling "sericofera" which is an orthographic error (Art. 73). It would appear that none of these names has ever been formally typified. Consequently, in this paper several names in Araujia and Physianthus are lectotypified and synonymy is established. The common moth catcher or moth vine was first described and figured by Brotero (1817). In this paper he established the unispecific genus Araujia based on material from Peru. It was illustrated with two plates: t. 4 showing a flowering branch and t. 5 giving floral dissections and fruits. No mention was made of type material. In choosing a lectotype for Brotero's name we consulted the herbaria LISU and MO, both of which have material from his herbarium (Stafleu & Cowan, 1976). No relevant material is present at MO (J. C. Solomon, personal communication, 1991). According to A. Escudeiro (personal communication, 1991), a specimen of A. sericifera is present at LISU that was collected by Valorado and studied by Brotero. No indication was given if this specimen was studied by Brotero prior or subsequent to his publication of A. sericifera. Several subsequent enquiries to LISU have been unanswered and the nomenclatural status of this putative specimen remains unresolved. Brotero's t. 4 is clear and correlates well with the accompanying description and the widely naturalized taxon. It is thus selected as the lectotype for A. sericifera Brot. This same species next appeared in Martius (1824a) who was apparently unaware of Brotero's paper and described a new genus Physianthus with the species P albens C. Martius, based on material from Brazil. Once again no type material was mentioned,