A Prior Name for the Hawaiian Gouldia terminalis (Rubiaceae)

Abstract

Among the most frequently encountered woody plants in the wetter, forested portions of the Hawaiian Islands are members of the extremely variable genus Gouldia. Fosberg (1937) presented the results of his detailed study of this baffling genus and concluded that the variability could be properly categorized in not less than three species composed of more than 90 varieties and forms. However, even this number of formally named taxa failed adequately to represent the variability, for hybridization was so rampant that at that time more than 50 hybrids were also recognized and characterized. It is therefore not surprising that Gouldia has acquired a reputation, among botanists working on Hawaiian plants, not unlike that of Crataegus and Rubus in the eastern United States. Like those genera, it is naturally felt that its taxonomy can now be handled only by a specialist. The present note, written far from Hawaii, is therefore merely concerned with the nomenclature of the most widespread and-variable species of this endemic genus.