Category:VONITRA

A New Combination for a Previous Name

DONALD R. HODEL

In a just published paper (24 August 2022) based on a monumental molecular analysis of the subtribe Dypsidinae (including until recently the genera Dypsis, Lemurophoenix, Marojejya, and Masoala), which mostly occurs in Madagascar but with a few species in adjacent islands, Eiserhardt et al. (2022) found that the genus Dypsis, comprising 173 species, was untenable as previously understood. Thus, they justifiably divided Dypsis into three genera, in the process resurrecting two of them from synonymy, Chrysalidocarpus and Vonitra, into which they moved many of the former Dypsis species, necessitating numerous name changes sure to raise the ire and hackles of palm collectors, hobbyists, and growers everywhere. Now new names have to be learned and labels, lists, and databases corrected and updated; indeed, in some cases, even the suffix of the species epithets will change (for example Dypsis basilonga to Chrysalidocarpus basilongus).

So now, Eiserhardt et al. (2022) have moved many species out of Dypsis to the resurrected Chrysalidocarpus (54 species) and some to Vonitra (10 species). While noting that morphology alone is inadequate to understand and delineate genera in the Dypsidinae, they relied on morphological characters in their key to distinguish these three genera, many of which overlap or intergrade, pointing out the value of supporting molecular data. The fibrous and hairy leaf bases fairly easily distinguish Vonitra (..)

Edit by João S. Costa

File:Chrysalidocarpus.pdf