Mabberley • ( 2351) Reject Rhytidea bicolor
TAXON 64 (2) • April 2015: 384–385
(2351) Proposal to reject the name Rhytidea bicolor (Asparagaceae)
David J. Mabberley
Wadham College, University of Oxford, U.K.; Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; Macquarie University, Sydney,
and Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney 2000, Australia; [email protected]
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12705/642.18
(2351) Rhytidea bicolor Lindl. in Gard. Chron. 1856: 420. 21 Jun 1856
[Angiosp.: Lil. / Asparag.], nom. utique rej. prop.
Typus: Cult. ex California [deest].
John Lindley published a Latin as well as an English description
of a geophyte exhibited at the Horticultural Society’s show of 24 May
1856 (see Mabberley in Madroño [in press] for detailed discussion).
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The plant had been exhibited by Veitch Nurseries at the May 1856
show at Crystal Palace in London and represented material collected by W. Lobb in California. Lindley determined it represented
not only a new species but also a new genus, naming it Rhytidea
bicolor. Except for a report by Morren (in Belgique Hort. 7: 4. 1857)
and a listing in Hereman, Paxton’s Bot. Dict.: 619. 1868, this name,
despite its being first published in such a popular, widely distributed
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Mabberley • (2351) Reject Rhytidea bicolor
TAXON 64 (2) • April 2015: 384–385
journal, has hitherto been unconsidered and is in no standard index
or database.
No type for Rhytidea bicolor has been found and it is likely
that herbarium material of the then novel plant was not preserved.
This first introduction to European cultivation seems to have been
unsuccessful, which would account for the overlooking of Lindley’s
name. However, his detailed description leaves no doubt whatsoever
that R. bicolor is the earliest name for the very distinctive firecracker
flower of California and southern Oregon, now known as Dichelostemma ida-maia (Alph. Wood) Greene (Asparagaceae). Herbarium
specimens of wild material, prepared by Lobb in U.S.A., are preserved
at BM and K and lend further support to this conclusion.
After Lindley’s account, the firecracker flower was later named
Brevoortia ida-maia Alph. Wood (in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia [19]: 81–82. 1867), once again purporting to represent not only a
new species but also a new genus. For over 100 years Dichelostemma
ida-maia, based on Wood’s name, has been the accepted name for
the firecracker flower, a spectacular and well known garden plant.
It would be very disruptive to make a new combination based on
R. bicolor now, despite Lindley’s clear priority. Rhytidea bicolor is
therefore proposed to be rejected.
Brevoortia Alph. Wood has long been sunk in Dichelostemma
Kunth (Enum. 4: 469. 17–19 Jul 1843); see Mabberley (l.c.) for full
discussion and references, but, in the extremely unlikely event that
D. ida-maia would ever be segregated as a distinct genus, it would
be accommodated in Rhytidea, rather than Brevoortia, thereby recognising Lindley’s priority in this. It is perhaps worth noting that
Brevoortia T.N. Gill (in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia [13]: 37.
1861), also commemorating James Carson Brevoort (1818–1887), is a
name in current use for a genus of marine fishes commonly found in
waters around the Americas.
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