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Lectotypification of Vigna wightii

(Leguminosae: Papilionoideae)
Citation: Krishnaraj Moothedathu
Venugopalan Nair, Narayanan Nair
Mohanan (2020) Lectotypification of Vigna
wightii (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae). Krishnaraj Moothedathu Venugopalan Nair1,*, Narayanan Nair
Webbia. Journal of Plant Taxonomy Mohanan2,3
and Geography 75(2): 281-286. doi:
10.36253/jopt-9419 1 Department of Botany, Baselius College, Kottayam, Kerala, India-686001
2 Jawaharlal
Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Pacha-Palode, Thiru-
Received: July 11, 2020
vananthapuram, Kerala, India-686562
3 MSSRF, Community Agrobiodiversity Centre, Puthoorvayal, Wayanad, Kerala,
Accepted: August 9, 2020
India-673577
Published: November 18, 2020 *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright: © 2020 Krishnaraj Moothe-
dathu Venugopalan Nair, Narayanan Abstract. George Bentham’s Vigna wightii, endemic to the Southern Western Ghats, is
Nair Mohanan. This is an open access, here lectotypified by using R.H.Beddome’s collection from the Anamallai mountains,
peer-reviewed article published by India.
Firenze University Press (http://www.
fupress.com/webbia) and distributed
under the terms of the Creative Com- Keywords: Leguminosae: Papilionoideae, Vigna, nomenclature.
mons Attribution License, which per-
mits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided
the original author and source are
credited. INTRODUCTION

Data Availability Statement: All rel-

The genus Vigna Savi (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae) is represented with
evant data are within the paper and its
Supporting Information files. c.104 species (Delgado-Salinas et al. 2011) and shows complex taxonomy due
to its relationship with Phaseolus (Marechal et al. 1978; Delgado-Salinas et al.
Competing Interests: The Author(s) 1993). These authors systematically recognized seven sub-genera in the genus
declare(s) no conflict of interest.
Vigna s.l. namely, Ceratotropis, Haydonia, Lasiospron, Macrorhynchus, Plec-
Editor: Lia Pignotti totropis, Sigmoidotropis and Vigna. The sub-genus Ceratotropis (Piper) Ver-
dcourt, which is popularly known as Asiatic Vigna has its centre of diversity
in Asia (Tomooka et al. 2002) with ca. 29 species distributed in India (Dixit
et al. 2011; Aitawade et al. 2012; Latha et al. 2014; Gaikwad et al. 2014; Gaik-
wad et al 2015; Balan et al. 2017).
During the studies on Leguminosae: Papilionoideae of Kerala State, we
found that Vigna wightii Benth. ex Bedd., needs to be typified, which is dis-
cussed below. The lectotypes are selected based on Art.9.3 and 9.12 of the
Shenzen Code (Turland et al. 2018). Herbarium acronyms follow Thiers (2016).
The name Vigna wightii Benth. was first validly published by Beddome
in Trans. Linn. Soc. London 25(2): 215. 1865 and not in Icon. Pl. Ind. Ori-
ent. 69. t. 296. 1874 as cited by Noltie (p. 513. 2005). Baker (1876) also over-
looked Beddome’s treatment of this taxon. However, Baker (1876) curiously
referred Beddome’s Ic. Pl. Ind. Or. t. 296. 1874 and cited Carnatic: Courtal-
lum, Wight, Thomson. (Krishnaraj and Mohanan 2014). While revising the

Webbia. Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography 75(2): 281-286, 2020

ISSN 0083-7792 (print) | ISSN 2169-4060 (online) | DOI: 10.36253/jopt-9419
282 Krishnaraj Moothedathu Venugopalan Nair, Narayanan Nair Mohanan

Figure 1. Herb. Wight Prop. 1836, coll. no. 244 (K000900669!.@ Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew).
Lectotypification of Vigna wightii (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae) 283

Figure 2. Herb. Wight, no.798 (K000900668! !.@ Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew).
284 Krishnaraj Moothedathu Venugopalan Nair, Narayanan Nair Mohanan

Figure 3. Lectotype of Vigna wightii Benth. ex Bedd. (BM001217768! @ British Museum, Natural History).
Lectotypification of Vigna wightii (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae) 285

tribe Phaseoleae in India, Babu et al. (1985) erroneously Nomenclature

typified Vigna wightii Benth. ex Bedd. based on Wight
1836, deposited at the Kew Herbarium (K), which they Vigna wightii Benth. ex Bedd. Trans. Linn. Soc. London
again cited as the type of Phaseolus wightianus Graham 25(2): 215. 1865
ex Wight & Arn.
While transferring Phaseolus wightii Wight & Arn. Type: Courtallum and Wayanad, s.d., Beddome 2243
to Vigna, Babu et al. (1985) proposed the name Vigna (BM001217768!, lectotype here designated). Figure 3.
hainiana (as nom. nov.) due to the presence of preoccu-
pied epithet ‘wightii’ under Vigna (as V. wightii Benth.
ex Bedd.). It should also be noted that P. wightianus ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Graham ex Wight & Arn. is a nom. nud. and hence it
is not a ‘name’ or validly published name and has not We are grateful to Dr. Subir Bandyopadhyay and
any type. Hence, the replaced synonym of V. hainiana Dr. Avishek Bhattacharjee, Central National Herbarium
should be Phaseolus wightii (Wight 1834) or correctly P. (CAL), Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, for all the
wightianus Graham ex Wight & Arn. Babu et al. (1985) help during the preparation of the manuscript. We are
ascribed the name Vigna wightii Benth. to Baker and cit- also indebted to Dr. John McNeill Royal Botanic Garden,
ed as Vigna wightii Benth ex Baker, which is also wrong. Edinburgh, for his advice; The staffs and Board of Trus-
Most probably, the specific epithet ‘wightii’ was tees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Director, British
coined by Bentham after examining the materials col- Museum of Natural History (BM) for relevant images of
lected by Wight from Peninsular India. This is clearly herbarium specimens and response to our queries.
evident through the collections of Wight in posses-
sion of Bentham, sealed as Herbarium Benthamianum
(Herb. Wight Prop. 1836, coll. no. 244(K000900669!. REFERENCES
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