Philippine Journal of Science
142:(3) 215-221, Special Issue
ISSN 0031 - 7683
Nomenclatural Notes on Boesenbergia Kuntze (Zingiberaceae)
J.F. Veldkamp
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, National Herbarium of The Netherlands,
Leiden University, POB 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
A nomenclatural survey of Boesenbergia rotunda (L.) Mansf. (Zingiberaceae) is presented. The binomial, Boesenbergia phyllostachya (Gagnep.) K. Larsen, is validated. Comment on the inaccurate lectotypification of Boesenbergia loerzingii is provided.
INTRODUCTION
Boesenbergia rotunda (L.) Mansf. (Zingiberaceae) is widely cultivated in Asia from Sri Lanka to China, Indonesia and is presently also grown in the Philippines (B.C. Tan, pers. comm.). Like many cultivated plants its origin is uncertain. Early Western authors have suggested various provenances: Sri Lanka (Hermann 1689, Van Rheede 1692), India in the wide sense (Linnaeus, 1753, and later authors, e.g. Roxburgh 1810, Ridley 1899, Schlechter 1913), Sumatra (Roxburgh 1814), Java and Bali (Rumphius 1747, Ibrahim & Nugroho 1999). Perhaps a phylogenetic analysis based on molecular data may provide a suggestion (Mood, in progress).
The name was lectotypified by Burtt & R.M. Smith (1972) with a plate in Van Rheede (1692: t. 10; see Fig. 4), because the description and plate were the base for Linnaeus’s concept of both the genus Curcuma L. and the species C. rotunda. Nevertheless, to conserve traditional use of the generic name, Curcuma is lectotypified with C. longa L. There is no indication that Linnaeus ever saw a plant, dead or alive. He mentioned the species in the Musa Cliffortiana (1736), but there is nothing in the Hortus Cliffortianus (1737), BM-Clifford, WAG-Clifford, or his own herbarium in LINN. This suggests that it was not cultivated in The Netherlands or Sweden in his time. This implies that the appointment of an epitype might be useful. . . . . . read more
