Capparis rotundifolia Rottler P 1803

Capparis rotundifolia Rottler (1803: 185). Fig. 3

Lectotype (designated here):— INDIA, between Pondichery and Alamparvei, 1 st and 2 nd October 1799, Rottler M.J., s.n. lectotype, designated here P04022372 (P, image!); isolectotype: K000247323 (K, image!)

Distribution: — INDIA and SRI LANKA (Sundararaghavan 1993, Maurya et al. 2020).

Notes: —While searching the type specimens of Capparis rotundifolia, we came across two specimens, one housed in K, and the other one at P. The P specimen, P04022372 (designated here as lectotype) have Rottler’s annotation as “ INDIA, Entre Pondichery et Alamparvei, 1 et 2 Octobre 1799 ” and a determinavit slip by Jacobs as “ Capparis rotundifolia Rottl., Isotype!. Other specimen housed at K, K000247323 have Rottler’s annotation, “ Capparis rotundifolia nov., Octob. 1, 1799”, and a determinavit slip by Jacobs as “ Capparis rotundifolia Rottl., Type!.

Capparis rotundifolia was first described by Rottler from Pondicherry and Alamparvei (also known as Alamparai) regions of south India, but the collection number and herbarium details were not mentioned in the protologue. Jacobs (1965) cited one of the Rottler’s specimens housed at P as a Holotype (Rottler s.n., K, P, Holo) in his treatment. However, the only specimen of Rottler available at P (P 04022372) has the determinavit slip by Jacobs as “Isotype”. Another specimen of Rottler housed at K has the determinavit slip by Jacobs (1965) as ‘Type’ which is a mixture of two specimens (K000247322 & K000247323), both devoid of flowers or fruits. Hence, we selected the P specimen as a lectotype, matching perfectly with the protologue. The citation of ‘Holotype’ by Jacobs (1965) has to be considered a correctable error (Art. 9.10 of ICN) and the P specimen (P 04022372) is designated here as the lectotype for C. rotundifolia following Art. 9.3 and 9.10 of ICN (Turland et al. 2018).