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Lectotypification of Plant Names


Affiliations
1 Botanical Survey of India, P.O. Botanic Garden, Howrah 711 103, India
 

Many publications on lectotypification of 'species' are coming up in different periodicals. We would like to point out that 'species' do not have type(s); they have circumscription and only the names have types. What is circumscription? It is an attribute or a set of attributes that characterize the taxon, and exclude it from all other taxa. Thus, a heading such as 'lectotypification of species' is not correct. This was first pointed out to one of us (S.B.) by late Dan H. Nicolson in 1992. However, such inappropriate titles appear even in reputed taxonomic journals.
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  • Lectotypification of Plant Names

Abstract Views: 471  |  PDF Views: 137

Authors

Subir Bandyopadhyay
Botanical Survey of India, P.O. Botanic Garden, Howrah 711 103, India
Avishek Bhattacharjee
Botanical Survey of India, P.O. Botanic Garden, Howrah 711 103, India
Gopal Krishna
Botanical Survey of India, P.O. Botanic Garden, Howrah 711 103, India

Abstract


Many publications on lectotypification of 'species' are coming up in different periodicals. We would like to point out that 'species' do not have type(s); they have circumscription and only the names have types. What is circumscription? It is an attribute or a set of attributes that characterize the taxon, and exclude it from all other taxa. Thus, a heading such as 'lectotypification of species' is not correct. This was first pointed out to one of us (S.B.) by late Dan H. Nicolson in 1992. However, such inappropriate titles appear even in reputed taxonomic journals.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv111%2Fi9%2F1437-1437