Saururaceae F.Voigt
Saururaceae Rich. ex T. Lestib.
I don’t remember seeing this before. A family name that is accepted but two groups list different authors names. Well, one has to have replaced the other but I haven’t found which one yet. Both organizations are very up to date and accurate. Maybe someone should arm wrestle… Sometimes the oldest published date wins, but with the APG reclassifications, who knows. That shouldn’t have anything to do with this issue, though, because the name is accepted no matter who did it.
The International Plant Names Index says this family was named and described by F. Voigt in Analyse Der Frucht Und Des Saamenkorns in 1911.
Tropicos says the Saururaceae Family was named and described by Louis Claud Marie Richard and ex author Thémistocle Gaspard Lestiboudois in Botanographie Élémentaire in 1826.
In the latter case, we have an author that published the name and their description wasn’t accepted then the next author’s description was accepted. Sometimes this is just a matter of using the same description and publishing it in a different publication. The second author recognized the first author’s work (or maybe that is what an “in author” is-LOL!). I will go back and do some research before too many people read this explanation…
ANYWAY, Plants of the World Online recognizes Saururaceae F. Voigt as the legitimate scientific name for this family of flowering plants. They list 4 accepted genera in the family sometimes known as the lizard’s-tail family.
For more information about this family of plants, please click on the links below. The links take you directly to the information about the family.
