Overview
Goeppertia pavonii (Körn.) Borchs. & S.Suárez is the accepted name for this species of Marantaceae, as recorded by Plants of the World Online (POWO), maintained by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew [1]. The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy records the same accepted name under key 7593451, cross-referencing the POWO treatment [4]. The species is a perennial herb that grows primarily in the wet tropical biome, with a native range spanning northern Brazil to Peru and Bolivia [1].
The genus Goeppertia Nees encompasses an estimated 260 accepted species within Marantaceae. The great majority were transferred from Calathea G.Mey. following a molecular phylogenetic revision demonstrating that Calathea as previously circumscribed was polyphyletic [3]. Goeppertia pavonii is one of those transferred species, and it retains a substantial synonymy under both its former Calathea names and earlier manuscript designations [1].
The registry records the species as in cultivation (in_cultivation: true). The species was known in European horticulture by at least 1865, when it was illustrated in the Botanical Magazine under the synonym Calathea tubispatha Hook. [1]. The registry currently records no cultivar epithets, trade designations, or plant patents attributed to this species.
Nomenclature and Synonymy
The authority string Goeppertia pavonii (Körn.) Borchs. & S.Suárez documents a two-stage nomenclatural history. Friedrich August Körnicke (1828–1908) established the basionym Calathea pavonii Körn. in his Monographiae Marantearum Prodromus, published in the Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou 35(I): 116 in 1862 [2]. Körnicke based the species on Peruvian material associated with the Spanish botanist and collector José Antonio Pavón (1754–1840), whose name the epithet pavonii commemorates. Körnicke simultaneously treated the manuscript name Maranta maculata Pav. ex Körn. as a heterotypic synonym, citing it from the same protologue publication [2].
The transfer to Goeppertia was published by Finn Borchsenius, Lorena Suárez and Lena M. Prince in Systematic Botany 37(3): 620–635 in 2012 [3]. That paper demonstrated on molecular phylogenetic grounds that Calathea as previously circumscribed was polyphyletic, and published 246 new combinations reinstating the genus Goeppertia Nees for the majority of its species. The 2012 paper is the primary nomenclatural authority for the currently accepted combination [3].
Plants of the World Online records the following names as synonyms of Goeppertia pavonii [1]:
- Calathea tubispatha Hook., published in Botanical Magazine 91: t. 5542 (1865), a name applied to a plant cultivated at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and introduced to European horticulture before Hooker gave it a separate name three years after Körnicke's protologue.
- Calathea nigricans Rusby, published in Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden 6: 496 (1910), later treated as a nomenclatural illegitimate homonym.
- Calathea rusbyi Loes., published in Engler's Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, ed. 2, 15a: 678 (1930), introduced to replace the illegitimate C. nigricans.
- Maranta maculata Pav. ex Körn. (1862), the manuscript name cited in Körnicke's protologue.
- Goeppertia rusbyi (Loes.) Borchs. & S.Suárez, the combination for Calathea rusbyi published in Systematic Botany 37: 634 (2012), before the synonymy of Calathea rusbyi under Goeppertia pavonii was established [3].
The registry currently records two name rows for this species: the accepted epithet Goeppertia pavonii (Körn.) Borchs. & S.Suárez and the synonym Calathea tubispatha. POWO records five additional synonyms not yet present as registry rows: Calathea nigricans Rusby (1910, nom. illeg.), Calathea rusbyi Loes. (1930), Goeppertia rusbyi (Loes.) Borchs. & S.Suárez (2012), Maranta maculata Pav. ex Körn. (1862), and a further Maranta combination [1]. These are noted here as a registry conflict requiring human review; no primary record has been silently adopted.
The horticultural trade continues to use Calathea pavonii and Calathea tubispatha for this species. Neither name is accepted under current botanical nomenclature; both are treated as synonyms in the POWO checklist [1].
Description
Plants of the World Online characterises Goeppertia pavonii as a perennial herb of the wet tropical biome [1]. The Flora e Funga do Brasil (Reflora) checklist, published by the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, records additional morphological characters for the species: distichous phyllotaxy, basal leaf insertion, and ornamented young leaves [5]. These characters are documented from herbarium and cultivated material and are consistent with the broader leaf-ornamentation typical of Goeppertia.
The protologue was published by Körnicke in 1862 based on Peruvian material bearing the manuscript name Maranta maculata Pavón, which he treated as a heterotypic synonym of his new combination [2]. The 1865 Botanical Magazine plate associated with Calathea tubispatha Hook. (t. 5542) documents a cultivated plant at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and represents an early illustration of the species in European botanical literature [1].
No full morphological description sourced from a peer-reviewed monograph or flora treatment has been located beyond the characters listed above. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed.
Distribution and Habitat
Plants of the World Online records the native range of Goeppertia pavonii as northern Brazil to Peru and Bolivia, in the wet tropical biome [1]. The species is therefore a taxon of western Amazonia and the adjacent Andean foothills. The Flora e Funga do Brasil (Reflora) checklist confirms the species as part of the Brazilian flora, consistent with the POWO range statement [5].
The registry native_range and habitat fields were not populated at the time this record was created. POWO records the range as northern Brazil to Peru and Bolivia, and the biome as wet tropical; these values are noted here as pending registry update following human review of the conflict identified during verification.
No plant patent has been filed for this species. It is a wild-collected taxon described from botanical specimens, and accordingly no patent term, patent status, or patent-derived distribution restriction applies. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed regarding precise habitat characterisation and country-level distribution records beyond the range stated in POWO.
In Cultivation
Plants of the World Online records Goeppertia pavonii as a species in cultivation, consistent with its long history in European horticulture [1]. The synonym Calathea tubispatha Hook., under which the plant was illustrated in Botanical Magazine 91: t. 5542 in 1865, documents its introduction to cultivation in Britain no later than that date; the plate is associated with a living plant grown at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew [1]. The horticultural name Calathea tubispatha persists in trade and collector use, as noted in the registry, though it is not the accepted botanical name under current nomenclature [1].
The Flora e Funga do Brasil (Reflora) checklist records leaf morphological data for the species, including distichous phyllotaxy, basal leaf insertion, and ornamented young leaves, characters documented from both herbarium and cultivated material [5].
No International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) has been appointed for Marantaceae. The International Society for Horticultural Science publishes a list of appointed authorities by family; Marantaceae does not appear on that list. In the absence of an appointed authority, no formal international register of cultivar names exists for genera within this family, including Goeppertia. The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP) requires that a cultivar epithet be enclosed in single quotation marks and not italicised; that rule applies to any cultivar of Goeppertia pavonii regardless of whether a registration authority is in place.
The registry records no cultivar epithets, trade designations, or plant patents attributed to Goeppertia pavonii. Beyond the records cited above, limited authoritative sources available; further research needed regarding specific cultivation notes from botanic garden collections or university extension services.