The Australian Plant Name Index (APNI) is a tool for the botanical community that deals with plant names and their usage in the scientific literature, whether as a current name or synonym. APNI does not recommend any particular taxonomy or nomenclature. For a listing of currently accepted scientific names for the Australian vascular flora, please use the Australian Plant Census (APC) link above.
Showing Ophelia baxteri
- APC
- Plantae(reg.)
- Charophyta(div.)
- Equisetopsida(cl.)
- Magnoliidae(subcl.)
- Asteranae(superordo)
- Gentianales(ordo)
- Gentianaceae(fam.)
- Ophelia(gen.)
- baxteri(sp.)
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Type: "v.s. sp. in herb. Hook ... Nova Hollandia. King George's Sound (Baxter!)."
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Text: "This taxon, for which the only record is the above collection [i.e. "v.s. sp. in herb. Hook ... Nova Hollandia. King George's Sound (Baxter!)."], would seem from the photograph and ex descr. to belong in Swertia L., a genus so far not reliably reported for Australia; Bentham (1868) made no mention of the record. The supposed type specimen in K carries the original label in W.J.Hooker's hand, but annotated later by J.D.Hooker with 'Ceylon' and 'O. zeylanica'; then in 1978 it was routinely determined by L.H.Cramer as 'Swertia zeylanica (Griseb.) C.B.Clarke'. This is a montane species considered endemic to Ceylon (Cramer 1981). If this determination is to be relied on (and there seems no reason to doubt it), the alternative possibilities of (a) a disjunct and discordant range, or (b) an accidental introduction, both tax credibility. The inference drawn here is that the specimen somehow became mislabelled prior to Grisebach's name and description; the existence of Ophelia baxteri Griseb. as a distinct entity thus must remain in doubt for the present."
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APC Comment: A name of uncertain application, possibly referable to Swertia L. (see L.G.Adams in A.E.Orchard (ed.), Fl. Australia 28: 104 (1996).