Cycad Literature Database

David Moore provisionally and therefore invalidly published the name Ceratozamia fuscoviridis in 1878. The name was subsequently accepted with a brief description the year after in one of William Bull’s horticultural catalogues, resulting in its valid publication. In 2006, Roy Osborne and co-authors intended to validate Moore’s C. fuscoviridis, a name that they identified as applicable to a cycad occurring in the State of Hidalgo, Mexico. However, they were unaware of the protologue published by Bull and instead created an isonym with no nomenclatural status. Their holotype designation has no standing but that specimen is here designated as a neotype, therefore retaining the name C. fuscoviridis in use for the species from Hidalgo. Considerations regarding the increasing discovery of validly published names in historical literature are discussed as pertaining to the nomenclature of cycads, with the case of C. fuscoviridis providing an example of an old and obsolete plant name that is dealt with in a way that fosters nomenclatural stability.