A SUMMARY OF BLUTAPARON RAFINESQUE INCLUDING SPECIES EARLIER KNOWN AS PHILOXERUS R. BROWN (AMARANTHACEAE)

Abstract

If Philoxerus R. Brown is typified by the Australian species P. conicus R. Brown (see previous paper), then Philoxerus is the name of a group of Australasian species considered most closely related to Gomphrena L. (Burbidge, 1963). For the American species that have been called Philoxerus since 1814, and during much of the period considered generically distinct from the Australian species, another genus name must be found. Yet, so firmly was Philoxerus applied to the American species that only C. S. Rafinesque produced relevant generic names: Caraxeron Vaillant ex Rafinesque (1837) and Blutaparon Rafinesque (1838). In Flora Telluriana (part 3), pp. 38-39, Rafinesque (1837) resurrected, with the following comments, the original genus name Caraxeron used by Sebastian Vaillant (1724, p. 193) for what Linnaeus eventually named Gomphrena vermicularis: