Euonymus wrayi King

Euonymus wrayi King Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Pt. 2, Natural History 65, 3: 344 (King 1896). TYPE MATERIAL. — Malaysia • Perak, Gunong Batu Pateh; s.d.; 4500 ft; L. Wray 403; lectotype (here designated): CAL [CAL0000007333]! (Fig. 1); • same data; isolectotypes: BM [BM000839132] digital image!, K [K000669643] digital image! NOTES King (1896) described Euonymus wrayi based on two distinct gatherings: Wray 403 and Ridley 2652. According to Stafleu & Cowan (1979), King’s primary set or types are preserved at CAL and K. During our search for original material across various herbaria, we located a total of seven sheets that qualify as syntypes under Art. 9.6 (Turland et al. 2025). These include one sheet at K (K 000669643), one at L (L 0015179), one at SING (SING 0056441), two at BM (BM 000839108, BM 000839132), and two at CAL (CAL 0000007333, CAL 0000007334). The sheets with barcodes BM 000839132, CAL 0000007333 and K 000669643correspond to Wray 403, collected from Gunong Batu Pateh, Perak, at an elevation of 4500 ft by L. Wray. In contrast, BM 000839108, CAL 0000007334(Fig.2), L 0015179 and SING 0056441 represent collection of Ridley 2652, gathered from Kota Glanggi, Pahang in 1891. In the protologue, King (1896) described the leaves as having “ main nerves less prominent ” and the flowers as pentamerous. However, the Ridley 2652 collection deviates from this description, exhibiting tetramerous flowers and leaves with prominent midvein in the leaves. These discrepancies indicate that Ridley 2652 represents a taxonomically distinct entity and is a heterogeneous mixture, as not conforming to the diagnostic characters of E. wrayi. Therefore, Ridley 2652 (BM 000839108, CAL 0000007334, L 0015179 and SING 0056441) should be excluded while typifying E. wrayi King. Therefore, in accordance with Article 9.19(c) (Turland et al. 2025), only collection of Wray with field number 403 (BM 000839132, CAL 0000007333 andK000669643) is considered as the sole gathering eligible for lectotypification. However, Ding Hou (1962: 257), while describing Glyptopetalum zeylanicum var. brevipedicellatum, designated a sheet of the Ridley 2652 collection at SING (SING 0056441)as the holotype. Furthermore, Ding Hou(1962:258), while describing the variety brevipedicellatum, noted in his comments that “King cited the type (Ridley 2652) under Euonymus wrayi, but his description of the 5-merous flowers of that species does not correspond to Ridley’s specimen, which possesses 4-merous flowers.” As the sheets bearing barcodes BM 000839132, CAL 0000007333 and K 000669643 belong to Wray 403 collection, herein represent syntypes available for lectotypification. Among these, CAL 0000007333 is designated here as the lectotype in accordance with Art.9.3, 9.11, and 9.12 (Turland et al. 2025) as it is found to be the most suitable specimen to stabilize the application of the name. This selection is supported by the presence of a pencil inscription on CAL 0000007333 reading “ Euonymus sp 4; not at Kew in Euon …”, which closely matches King’s facsimiles. This inscription provides strong evidence that King consulted this sheet. Additionally, the sheet is well-preserved, displaying both flowers and fruits, further supporting its suitability as the lectotype.