New Journal article, Mar. 2015

Roebuckiella oncocarpa

When Phillip Short published his revision of Brachyscome at the end of 2015, he also described a new genus of daisy, Roebuckia. Unfortunately he discovered soon afterwards that the name had already been used for a genus of fossil fern, described by Steve McLoughlin in 1996.

In contrast to living seed plants, where there are catalogues of plant names available (IPNI, and for Australia APNI), there is no unified index of fossil plant names, and it is very difficult to search for them.

According to the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi and Plants (which also covers fossils), Phil Short has created a homonym, i.e. a new generic name that is the same as an already existing one. Homonyms are illegitimate names, according to the Code, and cannot be used. To rectify this, the author has now published a paper, renaming his genus as Roebuckiella and providing new combinations for the 9 species and 5 varieties under the new genus name.

P.S. Short
Roebuckiella P.S.Short, nom. nov., a replacement name for Roebuckia P.S.Short (2014), with new combinations (183kb PDF)

To access content of all volumes of the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/jabg (the Journal is also available through JSTOR).