The correct name for the type species of the genus Benthamia (Habenariinae, Orchidaceae)

Bytebier, B. (2025). The correct name for the type species of the genus Benthamia (Habenariinae, Orchidaceae). Candollea 80: 1–5. In English, English abstract. Louis-Marie Aubert Aubert Du Petit-Thouars (1758–1831) was one of the first botanists to describe several orchids, collected on the Mascarenes and Madagascar, in a seminal work published in 1822. Besides Linnean binomials, Du Petit-Thouars proposed alternative (Thouarsian) names that should be taken into consideration in certain nomenclatural situations, since they are proper binomials. One of the newly proposed species was Satyrium latifolium Thouars with the alternative Thouarsian name Satorkis latisatis Thouars. However, the former name is a later homonym and thus illegitimate. When Sprengel transferred the species to Habenaria Willd., the epithet latifolia was unavailable because of the existence of a previous homonym, and he coined the replacement name H. chlorantha Spreng., whereas he should have used the Thouarsian epithet latisatis. Lastly, Garay & Romero transferred the Sprengel name to the genus Benthamia A. Rich, which has hitherto been treated as the accepted name for this species and is furthermore the type species of the genus. However, in view of the fact that this is an illegitimate superfluous name, the correct binomial is proposed here as B. latisatis (Thouars) Bytebier. Received: October 28, 2024; Accepted: December 4, 2024; First published online: February 26, 2025