A new sectional combination in Nageia Gaertn. (Podocarpaceae)

Abstract

The genus Nageia has received varying taxonomic treatments. The most recent are those by de Laubenfels (1969, under the name Decussocarpus de Laub.; 1987, as Nageia Gaertn.), by Fu (1992) and by Melikyan & Bobrov (2000). De Laubenfels treated the genus in a broad sense, embracing three sections that are now generally recognized respectively as the separate genera Afrocarpus (J. Buchholz & N. E. Gray) Gaussen ex C. N. Page, Nageia sensu stricto, and Retrophyllum C. N. Page (as by Page, 1989, 1990). In de Laubenfels's earlier paper, these three sections were respectively called Decussocarpus de Laub. sect. Afrocarpus (J. Buchholz & N. E. Gray) de Laub., D. sect. Dammaroideae (Benn.) de Laub. [as ‘Dammaroides’], and D. sect. Decussocarpus. The name Decussocarpus had been substituted for Nageia Gaertn. as the type of that generic name is based upon mixed elements belonging to Myrtaceae and Podocarpaceae and, in 1969, an Article of the International Code then in force (Art. 70) banned the use of names based on such ‘discordant elements’. This Article was deleted by the Leningrad Congress and the name Nageia once again became legitimate and available for use. This necessitated de Laubenfels's brief paper of 1987, where the three sections of Decussocarpus which he had earlier recognized were respectively renamed Nageia sect. Afrocarpus (J. Buchholz & N. E. Gray) de Laub., N. sect. Nageia and N. sect. Polypodiopsis (C. E. Bertrand) de Laub.