Gymnosporia emarginata (Willdenow) Thwaites (1864: 409)

≡ Celastrus emarginatus Willdenow (1798: 1128)

≡ Maytenus emarginatus (Willdenow) Ding Hou (1963: 241)

Lectotype (designated here):— INDIA, Tamil Nadu, Tranquebar, Klein, s.n. (B, B-W 04752-02 0) (Fig. 1); isolectotypes: [B, B-W 04752- 01 0; HAL, HAL0145906; LECB, LECB0001906].

Notes: In search of original material for Celastrus emarginatus from ‘ India orientali ’ we were able to locate two specimens in B (B-W 04752-01 0 & B-W 04752-02 0), and one each in HAL and LECB that qualify here as syntypes (McNeill 2014). Jordaan & van Wyk (2003) pointed only the B specimen (Herb. Willdenow 4752) as a holotype, which is superseded here.

Both the specimens at B can be easily identifiable as Willdenow’s collection due to a “W.” mark at the bottom right corner of the sheets (Eckardt & Hiepko 1970), which was written by D.F.K. von Schlechtendal [pers. comm. Katharina Rabe, Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin]. The specimen folder (B-W 04752-00 0) is labelled with similar details concordant with the protologue and the label inside of the specimen folder reads “Klein Ind. 1795. W” [“Klein” refers to the collector Johann Gottfried Klein, “Ind.” refers to the locality, India, and “1795” probably refers to the year when Willdenow obtained the specimen]. Klein was a missionary botanist who collected plants from the Tranquebar, southern India (Burkill 1953). He used to send many of the plant materials collected from southern India and Sri Lanka to Willdenow at Berlin (Stansfield 1957). The label also reads “Kattanschi Mullu” [probably wild thorny shrub in Tamil].

The specimens in HAL and LECB were found to be duplicates, which were received from Willdenow [pers. comm. Katharina Rabe, BGBM, Berlin]. This could be seen on the left bottom corner label of HAL specimen (HAL0145906), which reads “ Celastrus emarginatus ” | “Indie orient” [India oriental] | “W. det” [Willdenow determined]. LECB specimen (LECB0001096) has a similar label as in the preceding specimen. The specimen in B (B-W 04752-02 0) bears flowers as well as fruits and is designated here as lectotype.