(3150) Achimenes fimbriata Rose ex C.V. Morton in Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1936: 12. 29 Apr 1936, nom. cons. prop. Typus: Mexico, Sinaloa, Lodiego, 9–15 Oct 1891, Palmer 1622 (US No. 305438 barcode 00126560; isotypi: C barcode C10012698, CAS barcode 0000048, US Nos. 567764 based on Gloxinia glabrata Zucc. in Flora 15(2, Beibl.): 99. 1832), another species with fimbriate corollas. The genus Achimenes Pers. comprises about 23 species of rhizomatous herbs mainly from Mexico, but which also range to northwestern South America. Plants of this genus are widely grown in horticulture for their colorful corollas and ease of cultivation. Conrad V. Morton (1905–1972), who published several new species of Achimenes in 1936, apparently did not realize that the name A. fimbriata had already been used for another species. Achimenes fimbriata Rose ex C.V. Morton is a name consistently applied to plants from western and central Mexico, from the state of Sinaloa to Guerrero (Ramírez-Roa, Revis. Achimenes Tesis. Biol. U.N.A.M.. 1987), since its publication in 1936. The name has been accepted and used by many workers on Mexican Gesneriaceae in checklists (Govaerts, World Checkl. Seed Pl. 1(1,2): 1–483. 1995; Villaseñor in Revista Mex. Biodivers. 87: 766. 2016), floristic works (e.g., Ramírez-Roa González-Gallegos Bistrain-Mendoza Arnold in Gloxinian 19(5, Suppl.): 18. 1969; Becker, Gesneriad Register: Check list Cult. Pl. Achimenes: 1–81. 1996, 1–68. 2008; Skog Roberts Ramírez-Aguirre, Evol. Caract. Flor. Achimenes. Tesis. Doct. U.N.A.M.. 2020). Achimenes glabrata is a species also well-known in horticulture from its origin in western and central Mexico from Sinaloa to Oaxaca. That the Hendersons had the plant currently known as A. glabrata in mind in their publication one can see from the description as well as the inclusion of “(gloxiniaeflora)” following the species name. This was the spelling of the epithet in A. gloxiniiflora (Scheidw.) Forkel ex Lem. (in Fl. Serres Jard. Eur. 4: 318. Feb 1848 “gloxiniaeflora”; based on Sinningia gloxiniiflora Scheidw. in J. Hort. Prat. 5: 124. Jun 1847 “gloxiniflora”, in Allg. Gartenzeitung 15: 225. Jul 1847 “gloxiniflora”), another synonym of A. glabrata. The argument could be made that by including the epithet of this earlier name that ought to have been adopted, A. fimbriata Hend. Cox in Ann. Hort. 5: 196, 513.1850) until it was synonymized by Fritsch (l.c.). In the absence of conservation, a new name will be required for the species currently known as Achimenes fimbriata Rose ex C.V. Morton. There are no synonyms (GBIF erroneously lists Gloxinia fimbriata Brongn. as a synonym). Consequently, the loss of this name would be quite disruptive. In addition to the references above of the name in publication, it is also currently listed on several commercial plant websites and other websites, e.g., Gesneriad Reference Web, iNaturalist.org (35 images of A. fimbriata), and The Plant List and on international plant databases, e.g., GBIF, World Plants (Complete List), Plants of the World Online, etc. Tropicos marks it as illegitimate.
Skog et al. (Wed,) studied this question.