A New Name for an Endemic Ecuadorian Violet

Abstract

Typification studies have revealed that the name Viola parvifolia Bentham, until now applied to an endemic high-elevation violet of is a homonym of V parvifolia Roemer & Schultes, which is a synonym of lonidium glutinosum Ventenat and, ultimately, of Hybanthus parviflorus (Mutis ex L.f.) Baillon. A new name, V polycephala H. E. Ballard & P. Jorgensen, is proposed. During nomenclatural studies of Violaceae for the checklist for the Catalogue of Vascular Plants of Ecuador, we discovered that the name Viola parvifolia has been used twice. Roemer and Schultes (1819) first applied it as a new name for Willdenow's V microphylla, a nomen nudum (this name was later validly published for a different species). Roemer and Schultes's name refers to a specimen of lonidium glutinosum Ventenat, which is now treated as a synonym of Hybanthus parviflorus (Mutis ex L.f.) Baillon. Bentham (1845) used the name a second time for a high-elevation violet of section Andinium endemic to Ecuador. Our examinations of type material for most of the approximately 200 published names of South American Viola and of protologues for the remaining names have revealed no evidence of another available name for Bentham's violet. While it resembles certain violets of the Andes considerably further south, it is morphologically distinctive in its perennial habit; stout erect woody rhizome ramifying underground to produce multiple crowns; numerous, mostly glabrous, small and densely packed rhombicto deltoid-lanceolate leaf blades, weakly decurrent petioles and margins weakly crenulate nearest the acute apex; and small flowers with very short spurs. We propose the following name, referring to the multiple, rounded crowns. Viola polycephala H. E. Ballard & P. Jorgensen, nom. nov. Replaced name: Viola parvifolia Bentham, P1. Hart. 161. 1845, not V parvifolia Willdenow ex Roemer & Schultes, Syst. Veg. 5: 391. 1819. PROTOLOGUE. Ecuador: Napo: In locis sabulosis montis Antisana altit. 15,400 ped., Hartweg 892 (holotype, K; isotypes, BM, G, K; photos, F(G)-024040, WIS(G)).