Vascular Plants
Australian Plant Name Index (APNI)
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.
Text:"The epithet was originally written nubilis, but this is clearly an unintentional error for nubila. Latin nubilus means 'dark or gloomy', reflected in Blakely's English name 'Dusky-leaved Ironbark', while nubilis means 'marriageable', inapplicable here. Mr H.K. Airy Shaw, of Kew, has expressed the view (in litt.) that 'nubilis' is an unintentional orthographic error which should be corrected."
Text:"Johnson (1962) changed Maiden & Blakely's epithet from nubilis to nubila, claiming that the original spelling was "clearly an unintentional error for nubila. Latin nubilus means 'dark or gloomy', reflected in Blakely's English name 'Dusky-leaved Ironbark', while nubilis means 'marriageable', inapplicable here". He further wrote, "Mr H.K. Airy Shaw, of Kew, has expressed the view (in litt.) that 'nubilis' is an unintentional orthographic error which should be corrected." Maiden & Blakely did not comment on the etymology of their epithet, but because Blakely (1934) continued to use the same spelling, we can be sure nubilis was not an 'unintentional error'. Nor is it an orthographic error to be corrected (under Article 60), as nubilis is the correct feminine form of the Latin adjective nubilis meaning either 'marriageable' or, according to Stearn (1992: 453), 'ready for pollination'. The species epithet is not correctable under the Code, and the original spelling is restored here."
