The Correct Names for the Tribes of Menispermaceae

Abstract

In his monograph of Menispermaceae in Engler's Pflanzenreich IV, 94 (1910), Diels divided the family into 8 tribes and these have since been accepted by subsequent workers, Troupin for the family in Africa, Barneby & Krukoff for America and myself for Asia to the Pacific. Following correct application of the rules of nomenclature, three of the tribal names cannot be used. To begin with, it is apparent that there should be a tribe Menispermeae containing Menispermum L. the type genus of the family, but this tribal name does not appear amongst those used by Diels. Menispermeae corresponds, in fact, to Cocculeae sensu Diels, which included Menispermum. The name Cocculeae, however, was first published in 1885 by Hooker f. and Thomson in a different sense, being applied to 4 genera, not including Menispermum but including Tiliacora, which is now placed in a different tribe. It may be noted that the name Menispermeae was first used by A. P. DeCandolle in vol. 1 of his Prodromus (1824) and applied to what is now the whole family Menispermaceae: DeCandolle's concept of the family included the present-day Lardizabalaceae and Schizandraceae. Two other tribal names used by Diels must be replaced by earlier names. As I pointed out in Kew Bull. 32: 323 (1978), Anamirteae Diels which includes Coscinium Colebr. must be replaced by Coscinieae Hook.f. & Thoms. Similarly, Triclisieae Diels, which includes Tiliacora, must be replaced by Tiliacoreae Miers. It should be noted that following a recent decision at the 1981 International Botanical Congress at Sydney, Art. 63 of the International Code no longer applies to names above the rank of genus. This means that the names Anamirteae and Triclisieae, although nomenclaturally superfluous when published, are no longer regarded as illegitimate. In the present classification of the family, however, they remain later synonyms and therefore cannot be used.