REINWARDTIA Vol. 21. No. 2. pp: 81‒82 DOI: 10.55981/reinwardtia.v21i2.4430 81 CORRECTING A MINOR ERROR: A NEW NAME FOR A MARANTACEAE SPECIES FROM NEW GUINEA Received October 5, 2022; accepted November 11, 2022 IAN M. TURNER Singapore Botanical Liaison Officer, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, U.K. Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board, 1 Cluny Road, Singapore 259569, Republic of Singapore. Email: I.Turner@kew.org. ABSTRACT TURNER, I. M. 2022. Correcting a minor error: a new name for a Marantaceae species from New Guinea. Reinwardtia 21(2): 81‒82. — The new name, Phrynium cominsia I.M.Turner, and lectotype are published for Comin- sia minor Valeton (Marantaceae). Key words: Cominsia, Indonesia, lectotype, nomen novum, Phrynium. ABSTRAK TURNER, I. M. 2022. Perbaikan kesalahan kecil: nama baru jenis Marantaceae dari Papua Nugini. Reinwardtia 21 (2): 81‒82. — Nama baru tersebut adalah Phrynum cominsia I.M.Turner, dan diterbitkan sebagai tipe pengganti Cominsia minor Valeton (Marantaceae). Kata kunci: Cominsia, Indonesia, nama baru, Phrynium, tipe pengganti. INTRODUCTION In their revision of the generic organisation of Asian Marantaceae, Suksathan et al. (2009) re- duced the genus Cominsia to Phrynium. Among the new combinations at species rank that were made to accompany this realignment, Cominsia minor Valeton was transferred to Phrynium, as ‘Phrynium minor’. The Latin term minor is a com- parative adjective derived from parvus meaning small, so minor means smaller. Latin adjectives typically decline according to the gender of the noun that they are describing, or in plant nomen- clature when used as a specific (or infraspecific) epithet with the gender of the generic name with which they form the name (ICN (Turland et al., 2018) Art. 23.5). For masculine and feminine gen- ders, minor is the correct declension, for genera with a neuter gender the epithet is correctly minus. Therefore, ‘Phrynium minor’ is correctible to Phrynium minus. But this name has been used be- fore by Schumann (1902) for what is now known as Stachyphrynium repens (Körn.) Suksathan. & Borchs. The new combination in Phrynium for Cominsia minor is therefore an illegitimate later homonym, and cannot be the correct name for the species. As there appear to be no heterotypic syno- nyms available, a replacement name is proposed here, using the old generic name as the specific epithet. Cominsia minor was described by Valeton from plants growing in the Bogor Botanic Garden, that were originally introduced from South-West New Guinea. The protologue included a detailed plate, presumably drawn from living material. Valeton made no reference to herbarium material and no likely type material was located in Herbarium Bo- goriense (H. Rustiami pers. comm.). Therefore, Valeton’s plate is here selected as lectotype of the name Cominsia minor. Phrynium cominsia I.M.Turner, nom. nov. Replaced synonym: Cominsia minor Valeton, Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, ser. III, 2 (1920) 351, t. II. – Phrynium minus Suksathan & Borchs., Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 159 (2009) 394, as ‘minor’, nom. illegit., non P. minus K.Schum. (1902). Lectotype: [published illustration] Valeton, Bull. Jard. Bot Buitenzorg, ser. III, 2 (1920) t. II (designated here). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dr. Himmah Rustiami very kindly checked Her- barium Bogoriense for type material of Cominsia minor. REFERENCES SCHUMANN, K. 1902. Marantaceae. In: Engler, A. Das Pflanzenreich 4: 1‒184. SUKSATHAN, P., GUSTAFSSON, M. H. & BORCHSENIUS, F. 2009. Phylogeny and ge- neric delimitation of Asian Marantaceae. Bo- tanical Journal of the Linnean Society 159: 381 ‒395. http://dx.doi.org/10.14203/reinwardtia.v19i1.3850 mailto:I.Turner@kew.org https://dx.doi.org/10.55981/reinwardtia.v21i2.4430 REINWARDTIA 82 [VOL.21 TURLAND, N. J., WIERSEMA, J. H., BARRIE, F. R., GREUTER, W., HAWKSWORTH, D. L., HERENDEEN, P. S., KNAPP, S., KUS- BER, W. H., LI, D. Z., MARHOLD, K., MAY, T. W., MCNEILL, J., MONRO, A. M., PRA- DO, J., PRICE, M. J. & SMITH, G. F. 2018. International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Shenzhen Code) adopted by the Nineteenth International Botanical Con- gress Shenzhen, China, July 2017. Regnum Vegetabile 159: 1‒254.