Correction of the holotype citations of three vascular plants at the herbarium of the National Institute of Biological Resources, Korea

Abstract

A holotype is an element to which the name of a taxon is permanently attached and is key material that facilitates taxonomic research. However, type citation or designation errors due to typographical errors or inadvertent mistakes often exist. When reviewing recently published literature for the type specimens of vascular plants in the herbarium of the National Institute of Biological Resources, we observed that three species, Isoetes laosiensis, Isoetes coreana, and Huperzia jejuensis, had errors, and the actual holotype information and the type descriptions of the protologues did not match. The name Isoetes laosiensis had a collecting number error, while Isoetes coreana and Huperzia jejuensis had collector errors. According to Article 9.2 of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Shenzhen code), if a holotype designation in the protologue of the name of a taxon is found to contain errors such as collector, collecting number, and illustration errors, the errors are to be corrected. We, therefore, corrected the errors in holotypes of three species, with no alterations made to the intents of the original authors.