(3150) Proposal to conserve the name Achimenes fimbriata Rose ex C.V. Morton against Achimenes fimbriata Hend. & Andr. Hend. ( Gesneriaceae : Gloxinieae )

(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 & 1491579 [barcodes 00244380 & 00244379]). (=) Achimenes fimbriata Hend. & Andr. Hend. in Ill. Bouq. 1: sub t. xiv. 1857–1859, nom. rej. prop. Lectotypus (hic designatus): [icon in] Bot. Mag.: t. 4430. 1 Mar 1849. The aim of this proposal is to avoid having to replace the well-known name Achimenes fimbriata Rose ex C.V. Morton (in Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1936: 12. 1936), which is widely used in horticulture and in treatments of Mexican Gesneriaceae, with a new name because of a conflict with A. fimbriata Hend. & Andr. Hend. (in Ill. Bouq. 1: sub t. xiv. 1857–1859). The latter has been ignored and unused from shortly after its original publication because it is considered a synonym of another well-known name, A. glabrata (Zucc.) Fritsch (in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. IV(3b): 174. 1894; 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 & Cerros-Tlatilpa in Revista Mex. Biodivers. 89: 351–355. 2018; González-Gallegos & al., Fl. Jalisco 30: 14–17. 2023; Bistrain-Mendoza & al. in Bot. Sci. 102: 951–974. 2024), horticultural works (Morton in Baileya 10: 152. 1962; Arnold in Gloxinian 19(5, Suppl.): 18. 1969; Becker, Gesneriad Register: Check list Cult. Pl. Achimenes: 1–81. 1996, 1–68. 2008; Skog & Katzenstein in Gesneriads 58(2): 19. 2008), phylogenetic studies (Roalson & al. in Syst. Bot. 28: 593–608. 2003; Roberts & Roalson in B. M. C. Genomics 18: 240. 2017), and theses (Ramírez Roa, l.c.; 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. & Andr. Hend. would be superfluous and illegitimate under ICN Art. 52.1 (Turland & al. in Regnum Veg. 162. 2025). It would nevertheless still cause illegitimacy of A. fimbriata Rose ex C.V. Morton (Art. 53 Note 4). The epithet “fimbriata” was used by Hooker (1849) in Gloxinia fimbriata (in Bot. Mag. 75: t. 4430. 1849), which is sometimes cited as the basionym of the Hendersons’ name in Achimenes, presumably because both names were used in cultivation in England. Hooker's Gloxinia fimbriata is an illegitimate later homonym of Gloxinia fimbriata Brongn. (in Rev. Hort. (Paris), sér. 3, 1: 364. 1 Oct 1847) and therefore cannot serve as a basionym. The plants described independently by Hooker and by Brongniart both originated from Parisian cultivations, but because their names were based on different material they would not be homotypic. Hendersons’ name can be treated as a replacement name for Hooker's, and is so typified above. Both Brongniart's and Hooker's names are heterotypic synonyms of A. glabrata. Hooker's name rarely surfaced (e.g., Harrison in Floric. Cab. & Florist's Mag. 17: 241. 1849; 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.