Nuytsia 8: 3 (1998) - FloraBase

Paul G. Wilson, Helipterum: Part 1
barbed woolly); achenes free, three fertile and silky, the rest sterile and glabrous (not coalescent with
1 or two fertile and the remainder sterile but hairy); achene narrowed at apex (not broad and lobed at apex).
The two species are similar in floral characters, in the seed morphology, and in form of the crystals present
in the testa.
Rhodanthe stuartiana (Sond. & F. Muell.) Paul G. Wilson, comb. nov.
Helipterum stuartianum Sond. & F. Muell., Linnaea 25: 518 (1853). - Helipterum floribundum var.
stuartianum (Sond. & F. Muell.) Benth., Fl. Austral. 3:642(1867). Type citation: 'Ad fl. Murray leg. Stuart.’
Lectotype (here chosen): Ad fl. Murray, F. Mueller (MEL 604830).
The type of Helipterum stuartianum is stated to have been collected by Stuart. A herbarium
O.W. Sonder specimen (MEL 604830) labelled 'Ad fl. Murray’ was collected by F. Mueller and bears in
(?)Sonder’s handwriting the phrase 'Antherae basi bisetae’; these words are used in the published
description. A further collection from 'Near the Murray R.’ no. 785 (MEL 1539201) was evidently from
Stuart. It bears the note 'This plant did not occur in my collection at Adelaide but I found seed of it amongst
those you procured from Stephens’ [? William Stephens, a garden’s collector]. I have selected the
Mueller collection (MEL 604830) as the lectotype since it was evidently studied by Sonder.
Rhodanthe troedelii (F. Muell.) Paul G. Wilson, comb. nov.
Helipterum troedelii F. Muell., Victorian Naturalist 7:77(1890). Type citation: 'Near the Barrier-Ranges;
Mrs Irvine, at Leight’s Creeks, beyond Beltana; Mrs Richards.’ Lectotype (here chosen): Leigh’s Creek,
1887, Mrs Richards (lecto: MEL 110636; isolecto: MEL 696324, NSW 181421).
Helipterum troedelii var. patens Ewart, J. White & B. Rees, Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria 22 n.s.:15(1909) pro
parte as to lectotype. - H.roseum var. patens (Ewart et al.) J. Black, Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. South
Australia 45:21(1921). Type citation: 'Mt. Lyndhurst, M. Koch, No.1644 (1899); Fraser Range, W. Austr.,
R. Helms, 1891.’ Lectotype: Mt Lyndhurst, S. Australia, M. Koch 1644 (1899), AD 97650128, fide D. Cooke
in Jessop & Toelken, Fl. South Australia edn 4, 1549(1986).
The syntype material of H.troedelii var. patens consists of two species. The collection of Max
Koch represents Rhodanthe troedelii while the collection of R. Helms represents the 'Nullarbor’
variant of R. chlorocephala. J.M. Black (1921 l.c.) indicated that he had examined duplicate material
of the Helms syntype and recognised it as being a variant of Helipterum roseum, he therefore
transferred var. patens to that species (which is a synonym of Rhodanthe chlorocephala). However,
D. Cooke (1986 l.c.) lectotypified the name on a Max Koch collection in herb. AD which had been
received by Black as a donation from MEL and is probably a duplicate of the Max Koch syntype (it
does not bear the month of collection that is present on the syntype). The AD specimen had been
annotated by Ewart as 'typical H. Troedelii’. In herb. MEL the Max Koch syntype has had the epithet
'var. patens’ deleted, presumably by Ewart, while the Helms syntype has been labelled 'type’. It would
therefore appear that subsequent to its publication Ewart intended to apply the epithet var. patens to
the element represented by the Helms collection which was also the way in which Black applied the
name (as a synonym of H. roseum) in 1921 and in the Flora of South Australia (1929).
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