Melanthium

Abstract: The new combination Melanthium woodii (Robbins ex Wood) Bodkin, made but not effectively published in my doctoral dissertation, is here validated in anticipation of its use in the forthcoming account of the genus in Flora of North America. Melanthium L. (Liliaceae) is a genus of perhaps eight species, four of them found in North America from central Iowa eastward to southern New York, south to northern Florida and eastern Texas; the other four are found in southwest China. The type species, M. virginicum L., occurs over this entire range, commonly in swamps, marshes, and bogs. Melanthium latifolium Desrousseaux, found mostly on rich wooded slopes, and M. parviflorum (Michaux) Watson, of higher elevations, occur mainly in the mid-Appalachian mountains. Another species, recognized previously as Veratrum woodii Robbins ex Wood and here transferred to Melanthium, is known only from rich deciduous slopes of the Ozark Plateau, where it is rare, and from five small disjunct populations in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In my revision of Melanthium (Bodkin, 1978), I maintained this genus as distinct from Veratrum L. on the basis of leaf size and shape, inflorescence characters, features of the tepal glands and claws, adnation of stamens to tepals, and general habit of the plants. According to these criteria, the species heretofore recognized as Veratrum woodii belongs with the other species of Melanthium. In anticipation of its use in my forthcoming account of Melanthium in Flora of North America, the new combination, made but not effectively published in my 1978 work, is here validated. Melanthium woodii (Robbins ex Wood) Bodkin, comb. nov. Basionym: Veratrum woodii Robbins ex Wood, Class-book bot. ed. 2, 557. 1847. TYPE: U.S.A. Indiana: Greene Co., deep woods, July, Wood s.n. (holotype, GH). Veratrum intermedium Chapman, Fl. S. U.S. 489. 1860. SYNTYPES: U.S.A. Florida: Gadsden Co.: rich, shady hummocks, 1835, Chapman s.n. (lectotype, here designated, GH); U.S.A. Florida: s.l., s.d., Chapman s.n. (probable type, GH). When Wood published the name Veratrum woodii and the accompanying description, he cited Robbins as author. There has been some confusion as to whether Robbins should be cited "in Wood" or "ex Wood." There is no indication or acknowledgment that Robbins actually wrote the description, so the correct citation is Robbins ex Wood. The description is thorough and agrees in all characters with the type at GH. Acknowledgments. I deeply appreciate the assistance given by James Reveal, University of Maryland, and Robert Kiger, Hunt Institute, in the preparation of my revision of North American Melanthium.

Abstract: Daniel B. Ward's recent assessment of species in Flora Caroliniana by Thomas Walter included the identification and neotypification of Melanthium hybridum Walter, a name that would now have apparent priority over the more commonly used synonyms for the crisped bunch-flower, M. latifolium Desr. in Lam. and Veratrum latifolium (Desr. in Lam.) Zomlefer (Melanthiaceae). The supported conservation of the name Veratrum L. over Melanthium L. at the Melbourne International Botanical Congress necessitates the transfer of M. hybridum to Veratrum. However, another name, V. hybridum J. H. Zimmerman, lacked reference to the basionym and was not validly published. Herein, a discussion of these nomenclatural issues includes the validation of the name V. hybridum (Walter) Zimmerman ex Zomlefer.