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genus Orthophytum Beer |
(subfam. Bromelioideae)Publ: Flora 37: 347 (1854)
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Flora 37: 347. 14 Jun 1854.
Type Prantleia glabra Mez in Mart., Fl. bras. 3(3): 258. 1 Nov 1891. Orthophytum glabrum (Mez ) Mez in C. DC., Monogr. phan. 9: 117. Jan 1896. Currently recognized in the subfam. Bromelioideae. See Prantleia. When Beer described the genus Orthophytum, he neither described any new species within the genus nor transferred any taxa into it. Rather, he merely cited a specimen on which he based the generic description (Nr. 3436 Bras. Inhumaes Pohl aus dem Herbarium des Wiener Museum) [Number 3436, Bras. Inhumaes (Inhumas, Goiás, Brazil), Pohl, from the herbarium of the Vienna Museum.] Curiously, Beer did not recognize this genus in his Fam. Bromel.: 1856 (‘1857’). Mez later in Fl. bras. 3(3): 180, 257. 1 Nov 1891 described the genus Prantleia and based this name on this same collection, citing in addition a duplicate specimen seen in Brussels. Mez (in Monogr. phan. 9: 116-117. Jan 1896), realized that his Prantleia was the same as that of Beer’s Orthophytum: “Generis et a Beerio in opere de Bromeliaceis et a sequentibus neglecte nomen hic reconstituo.” [I resurrect the following neglected name (Orthophytum) from Beer’s opus on the Bromeliaceae (Die Familie der Bromeliaceen).] From the Greek orthos, straight, and phyton, plant.
(from Grant & Zijlstra 1998)