{"id":1049,"date":"2019-12-14T10:01:26","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T10:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/?p=1049"},"modified":"2019-12-17T11:24:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T11:24:04","slug":"adventbotany-2019-day-14-navitatis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/herbarium\/2019\/12\/14\/adventbotany-2019-day-14-navitatis\/","title":{"rendered":"#AdventBotany 2019 Day 14: nativitatis<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alastair Culham<\/a><\/h1>\n

Of the approximately 400000 recognised plant species in the world only a handful have a name linked to Christmas.\u00a0 Today we visit the species whose epithet is navitatis<\/em> meatining the birth of Christ.\u00a0 This blog is essentially a homage to three of the world’s major online botanical resources: International Plant Names Index (IPNI<\/a>), Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL<\/a>) and Plants of the World Online (POW<\/a>O) with additional thanks to Internet Archive<\/a> an invaluable source of online books from around the world.<\/p>\n

A monograph of Christmas Island<\/h2>\n

In 2015, Rachel Webster put Christmas Island on the #AdventBotany map with a wonderful blog about specimens held in the Manchester Museum Herbarium.\u00a0 Today I focus on the publication by C.W. Andrews in 1900 of A monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean)<\/a>.\u00a0 The monograph is available in its entirety in three different copies available at BHL and Internet Archive.<\/p>\n

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Cover pages of three copies of A Monograph of Christmas Island by C.W. Andews (1900) from Biodiversity Heritage Library and Internet Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All are in good condition and show the value of open-access digitised literature.\u00a0 Before such resources it would have been time consuming to see a copy and expensive to photocopy it.\u00a0 So Christams gift number 1 is digitised libraries.<\/p>\n

This was a key work that led to many subsequent publications on the flora and fauna of this island.<\/p>\n

Why navitatis<\/em>?<\/h2>\n

None of the species with the epithet navitatis<\/em> have any direct link to the birth fo Christ.\u00a0 All of them have this name because they were found and described from Christmas Island.\u00a0 This is where IPNI comes in.\u00a0 A search for ‘navitatis’ yielded all the species known with this epithet.\u00a0 An epithet is the second half of the scientific name of a species – the struture is Genus specific_epithet<\/em>.\u00a0 The two parts together are the species name. Christmas gift number 2 is a readily available database of published plant names.<\/p>\n

IPNI yielded the following list of names:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Cryptocarya nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nRendle ex Baker f.,<\/a><\/td>\nin Andrews, Monogr. Christmas Isl. 187.\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dendrobium nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nRidl., J.\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nStraits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 48: 107 (1907).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Flickingeria nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n(Ridl.) J.J.Wood,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nOrchadian 7(6): 145 (1982): (1982).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ischaemum nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nStapf ex Jansen,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nReinwardtia ii. 298 (1953), sine descr. lat.\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ischaemum nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nJansen ex Renvoize,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nKew Bull. 40(2): 447 (1985).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Limacia nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nRidl.,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nJ. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 45: 170 (1906).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mentha nativitatis-mariae<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nSennen,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nBull. Soc. Bot. France 73: 669, nomen (1927).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mentha nativitatis-mariae<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nSennen & Sennen,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nBol. Soc. Iber. Ci. Nat. 33(8-10): 104, descr. (1935).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pandanus nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nRidl.,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nJ. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 45: 238 (1906).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Peperomia nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nC.DC.,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nBot. Jahrb. Syst. 56(4): 506, in error as ‘Polynesia’ (1921).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pittosporum nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nBaker f.,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nin Andrews, Monogr. Christmas Isl. 171.\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saprosma nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nBaker f.,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nin Andrews, Monogr. Christmas Isl. 180.\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tristiropsis nativitatis<\/a><\/em><\/td>\nHemsl. ex Ridl.,\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\nJ. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 45: 182 (Jun 1906); et in Journ. As. Soc. Straits, 48: 107 (1907).\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

But you can see these need an expert to interpret and make sense of them. So thank you IPNI for a good starting point.<\/p>\n

Three of the new nativitatis<\/em> names are from Andrews’ monograph and one of these is illustrated. The other plant species illustrated in the monograph, Panicum andrewsii<\/em>, was named in honour of C.W. Andrews.<\/p>\n

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Plate XVIII Pittosporum nativitatis<\/i> Baker f. (right) and Plate XVII Panicum andrewsi<\/i> Rendle (left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Have any of the names changed?<\/h2>\n

This is where POWO comes in.\u00a0 POWO is an online list of accepted plant names (that replaced The Plant List) and offers rich data including images of herbarium specimens, distribution maps and other valuable information. A look through POWO yielded a sorry tale of synonymy, our 13 names were 10 species but of those 10 species only two retain an accepted name including navitatis<\/em>.\u00a0 The other eight have become synonyms, usually of more widespread and better known species.\u00a0 On the up-side, Pandanus navitatis<\/em> became Pandanus christmatensis<\/em>, so retaining the link to Christmas Island.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Cryptocarya nativitatis<\/em> Rendle ex Baker f., (1900) now included in Cryptocarya nitens<\/em> (Blume) Koord. & Valeton. Lauraceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Dendrobium nativitatis<\/em> Ridl., (1907) sometimes treated as Flickingeria nativitatis<\/em> (Ridl.) J.J.Wood,(1982). Orchidaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Ischaemum nativitatis<\/em> Jansen ex Renvoize, (1985). Poaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Limacia nativitatis<\/em> Ridl., (1906). now included in Pachygone ovata<\/em> (Poir.) Miers ex Hook.f. & Thomson. Menispermaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Mentha nativitatis-mariae<\/em> Sennen & Sennen, (name 1927, desc.1935). now included in Mentha longifolia<\/em> (L.) L. subsp. longifolia. <\/em>Lamiaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Pandanus nativitatis<\/em> Ridl., (1906). now treated as Pandanus christmatensis<\/em> Martelli.\u00a0 Pandanaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Peperomia nativitatis<\/em> C.DC., (1921). now included in Peperomia laevifolia<\/em> (Blume) Miq.. Piperaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. Pittosporum nativitatis<\/em> Baker f., (1900) now included in Pittosporum ferrugineum<\/em> W.T.Aiton. Pittosporaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Saprosma nativitatis<\/strong><\/em> Baker f., (1900) now included in Amaracarpus pubescens<\/em> Blume subsp. pubescens<\/em>.\u00a0 Rubiaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n
  10. Tristiropsis nativitatis<\/em> Hemsl. ex Ridl., (Jun 1906, 1907) now included in Tristiropsis acutangula<\/em> Radlk. Sapindaceae<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n