Friesodielsia subaequalis (Annonaceae): a new nomenclatural combination following conservation of the generic name against Schefferomitra

Abstract

Friesodielsia (Annonaceae; Uvarieae) was erected by Van Steenis (1948: 458) to replace the illegitimate name Oxymitra (Blume 1830: 71) Hooker & Thomson (1855: 145), which was a later homonym of the liverwort Oxymitra Bischoff in Lindenberg (1829: 124). Although Van Steenis recognized 52 species in Friesodielsia from Africa and Asia, many taxonomists questioned whether the taxa in these two geographical regions were truly congeneric (e.g., Verdcourt 1971, Van Heusden 1992). The African and Asian species are morphologically distinct with regard to overall flower shape (broad vs elongate), inner petal arrangement (loosely coherent vs apically connivent), monocarp shape (moniliform vs subglobose), seed number per monocarp (up to five vs one or two) and pollen exine (coarsely verrucate vs echinate) (Verdcourt 1971, Walker 1971, Van Heusden 1992, Guo et al. 2017a).