Linociera giordanoi (Oleaceae): The Correct Name for a Widespread African Species

Abstract

During his studies of Ethiopian Oleaceae at the 'Herbarium Aethiopicum' in the Herbarium of the University of Florence (FI) the author became aware of the fact that the holotype of Linociera giordanoi Chiov. (Giordano 2396 bis, 'a Humbi (Saio)' [near Dembidollo, SW. Ethiopia]) was identical to the species better known as L. latipetala M. R. F. Taylor, which is distributed from Ethiopia throughout East and Central Africa to Cameroun (see the map by Lieben in Distrib. P1. Afr. no. 208 (i973), also Lieben's accounts in Bull. Jard. Bot. Nat. Belg. 43: 357-358 (I973) & in Fl. Afr. Centr., Oleaceae (1973))The first name used for this taxon was Campanolea mildbraedii Gilg & Schellenb. (in Engl., Bot. Jahrb. 51 : 74 (1913)), then regarded as representing a monotypic genus. The name of this genus, Campanolea, was reduced to a synonym of Olea by E. Knoblauch (in Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin I i: 673 (1932)), a view which was followed by W. B. Turrill in his account of the Oleaceae for Fl. Trop. E. Afr. (1952). Under Olea the correct name is O. mildbraedii (Gilg & Schellenb.) Knobl. However, if one considers the genus Linociera in the sense that it has generally been understood by recent authors on the African flora, as shown in the study of the Oleaceae of Southern Africa by I. C. Verdoorn (in Bothalia 6: 594 (1956)), then the species is a Linociera. Since there is already a L. mildbraedii Gilg & Schellenb. (in Mildbr., Deutsch. Zentr.-Afr.-Exp. 1907-08, 2: 527 (1913)), now considered a synonym of L. africana (Knobl.) Knobl., it becomes necessary to study the priority of the two later available binomials, viz. L. latipetala M. R. F. Taylor (in Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew, 1940: 54 (1940)) and L. giordanoi Chiov. (in Atti R. Accad. Ital., Mem. Clas. Sci. I11(2): 50 (1940) as giordani). According to the information on the cover of the 1940volume of Kew Bulletin the epithet latipetala was published on 4 April and this is also the date on which the fascicle in question has been registered as received at Kew. An exact date of publication is not indicated on the paper by E. Chiovenda in which the epithet giordanoi was published, but a separate of his paper was registered as having been received at Kew on 28 March 1940 and the paper must therefore have been published some time earlier.