Exallage cristata (Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.) Nandikar & K.C.Kishor, 2019

Nandikar, M. D. & Kishor, K. C., 2019, A new species and a synopsis of the Hedyotis-Oldenlandia group (Rubiaceae: Spermacoceae) in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India, Blumea 64 (3), pp. 225-230 : 229

Exallage cristata (Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.) Nandikar & K.C.Kishor , comb. nov.

Spermacoce cristata Willd. ex Roem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. , ed. 15(3) (1818) 530. — Type: Roxburgh s.n. (lectotype, perhaps holotype: B (barcode B - W 02619 -01 0, http://herbarium.bgbm.org/object/ BW02619010 ), here designated), India, in Willdenow Herb., s.dat.

Spermacoce costata Roxb. (1814) 10, nom. nud.; (1820) 376. — Hedyotis costata (Roxb.) Kurz (1876) 135, nom.illeg.; non R.Br. ex G. Don (1834). — Exallage costata (Roxb.) Bremek. (1952) 142. — Type: Roxburgh s.n. (lectotype BR (barcode BR0000005316632),here designated),s.loc., s.dat.

Hedyotis vestita R.Br.ex G. Don (1834) 526. — Type: R.Brown s.n. (lectotype BM (barcode BM000833378,http://data.nhm.ac.uk/object/d9335565-6865- 4070-aa48-9286cef8ac85), here designated), 1822; isolectotypes BM ( BM001217239 ), CAL ( CAL0000069601 ; CAL0000069602 ), K ( K000770018 ; K001110053 ), Malaysia, P. Penang .

Notes — A specimen has been traced at B, Willdenow Herbarium (B -W 02619 -01 0) annotated by Willdenow as S. cristata , originally collected by Roxburgh as S. costata ; it is chosen here as lectotype. Another specimen collected by Roxburgh is at BR (BR0000005316632) with an annotation by Roxburgh as ‘ S. costata duplicate’. It is not certain that this is a duplicate of the lectotype specimen, and it bears no annotation by Willdenow. It is here selected as lectotype of S. costata , which is then a heterotypic synonym of S. cristata .

The name Hedyotis vestita is based on Robert Brown’s collections from Penang and Sylhet. It appeared first in Wallich’s Catalogue and was later validated by Don (1834). We could find multiple specimens from both Penang and Sylhet labelled no. 847 (1/ A and 2/ B) at BM, CAL and K. One of the specimens from Penang (Wall. Cat. no. 847.1/ A barcode BM000833378 ) is here selected as lectotype , duplicates at CAL and K are isolectotypes .