Verstreute Beobachtungen hinsichtlich der Familie Annonaceae by R. E. Fries: publication date and validity of new combinations

Summary

Robert Elias Fries wrote a short paper entitled Verstreute Beobachtungen hinsichtlich der Familie Annonaceae presenting a variety of taxonomic novelties and changes in the Annonaceae, including two new genera. This was published in Arkiv för Botanik in 1955. However a preprint version of the paper was circulated in 1953. While this earlier date for publication of Fries’s new taxa seems to have been known and accepted by the contemporary community of specialists, it was not picked up by the standard indices and is in danger of being overlooked. Another omission is that some of Fries’s new combinations are invalid in the paper. In looking for places where these combinations have been validly made, it became clear that further combinations proposed by Fries in the family account in Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien are also invalid. All the invalid combinations are listed in this paper. Notable corrections for full citation of names in current use for Annonaceae species are Mischogyne elliotianum (Engl. & Diels) Le Thomas, Uvaria leptopoda (King) J. Sinclair, Uvariastrum hexaloboides (R. E. Fr.) N. Robson and Uvariopsis congolana (De Wild.) R. E. Fr. (Fries 1959).