CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Philonotis curvata (Hampe) A. Jaeger is based on Bartramia curvata Hampe, described by Hampe (l.c.) in 1862 from Colombia. It is a widespread species in South America that occurs on wet soil or rocky slopes, along roadsides, usually covered with vegetation, and is frequently found bearing sporophytes. It is a small to medium size acrocarpous plant, with stems branched by numerous sub-floral innovations, leaves lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, with acuminate apex, margin serrate, slightly recurved below, costae sub-percurrent to percurrent, upper laminal cells rectangular to sub-linear, papillae at distal angles, basal cells quadrate to rectangular, weakly prorate at proximal angles. The sexual condition varies from dioicous, synoicous or paroicous; and the sporophyte is characterized by a horizontal capsule, striate and globose to sub-globose. Propagules (microphyllous branches) are abundant in the leaf axils. The main character to recognize this taxon is the presence of papillose-prorate cells distributed differentially in the lamina from the apex to the base. The lectotype designated here is composed of well conserved and complete plants with abundant sporophytes. The epithet curvata has been consistently applied to this species since its publication in 1862, generally as Philonotis curvata, and widely used in the bryological literature since its publication in 1875, e.g. by Hermann, Sehnem (1976), Yano (1981), Delgadillo & al. (1995), Churchill & al. (2000), Matteri (2004), O?Shea & Price (2008), and Churchill & al. (2009). During the ongoing taxonomic revision of Philonotis Brid. in southern South America, we found that Philonotis fontanoides (Gillies ex Grev.) A. Jaeger (l.c.: 88), a neglected species from Argentina, was synonymous with P. curvata, and its basionym, Bartramia fontanoides Gillies ex Grev. predates Bartramia curvata, the basionym of P. curvata. The type material of P. fontanoides, housed at E, consists of two sheets, one with three envelopes, one labelled as being from the Greville Herbarium, and the other two labelled as from ?South America?. The other sheet came from the ?Arnott Collection? (formerly GLA) and has one specimen (E00268391). The specimen selected as the lectotype of the species is the sample barcoded E00246418 from Greville?s own herbarium, which consists of complete and well-preserved plants, and is labelled with the information detailed in the original description. Until now the identity of P. fontanoides has remained unknown and the name has been listed only in a few catalogues, e.g. in He (1998), Matteri (2003) and Greene (1986), and considered as an insufficiently known species by Crosby & al. (1999). As the name P. fontanoides has scarcely been used and insufficiently known since its description, and in order to avoid disadvantageous nomenclatural changes (Art. 14.1 of the ICN, McNeill & al. in Regnum Veg. 154. 2011) conserving the name B. curvata, the basionym of P. curvata, against B. fontanoides, the basionym of P. fontanoides, as is here proposed, seems desirable. If this proposal is declined, the name P. fontanoides would have to replace the widely used P. curvata, which would be highly undesirable.