Taxonomic notes on the New Zealand flora: lectotypes in the fern families Athyriaceae and Cystopteridaceae

Abstract

The fern families Athyriaceae and Cystopteridaceae have few representatives in New Zealand, the former having two indigenous and four naturalised species, and the latter just one native and one naturalised species. Three lectotypes are designated here for basionyms relevant to New Zealand—Allantodia tenera R.Br., A. umbrosum var. multifidum Dobbie and Cystopteris novae-zealandiae J.B.Armstr. We have found no type material for Asplenium umbrosum var. leumfolia Dobbie, and the type for this remains undesignated. Lectotypes need to be chosen for all names at specific and infraspecific rank, for which no holotypes were designated by the original author, in order to fix the application of the name concerned. We selected lectotypes from among the available syntypes using the following criteria: best match to the protologue; best specimen, showing the most number of diagnostic characters; specimen with the most precise locality information; specimen annotated or labelled by the author; and specimen in the principal herbarium of the author. This short communication is a contribution towards clarifying the taxonomic and nomenclatural status of New Zealand plants for the plant names database (Ngā Tipu Aotearoa) and the electronic Flora of New Zealand.