The Correct Name of a Common Tropical American Oleandra

Abstract

One of the commonest and most widespread Oleandras of the American tropics was long known as Oleandra nodosa (Willd.) Presl. When Dr. William R. Maxon (1914, pp. 392-398) published a revision of the American species of Oleandra, he used the name 0. articulata (Swartz) Presll for the species previously known as 0. nodosa. This was a most confusing change, for 0. articulata had previously been applied to a common species of tropical Africa and the Mascarene Islands. The basis of this name was Aspidium articulatum Swartz.2 Dr. Maxon decided that because Swartz did not cite any specimen but only plate 136 of Plumier's Tractatus de Filicibus Americanis, he was in fact basing his new species solely on this illustration. This agrees with some of Maxon's other typifications of Swartz' species that Maxon thought were based on the cited illustrations of Plumier, Sloane, or others. But these typifications are incorrect, including the typification of Aspidium articulatum Swartz, which is based on a specimen from the Mascarene Islands. Thus the name Oleandra articulata should be restored for the African plant and not used for the American species. In Schrader's Journal of Botany (1801) Swartz gave brief diagnoses of many new species without citing any specimens. In