Nepenthes sumagaya, a new replacement name for Nepenthes amabilis.

These things happen. I recently co-authored a paper describing 4 new species of Nepenthes from the Philippines:

http://carnivorousockhom.blogspot.fr/2014/06/four-new-species-of-nepenthes-from.html

Among them was Nepenthes amabilis,a lovely plant from Mt Sumagaya.

Martin Cheek from Kew Garden found out that the epithete 'amabilis' had been already used once for a horticultural hybrid (N. x hookeriana, actually) and has therefore published a roughly 10 lines paper to invalidate the name 'Nepenthes amabilis', hence replacing it by Nepenthes sumagaya.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepenthes_sumagaya

This is arguably 'unfair' (especially because we did all the hard work of documenting the species in the wild and writing a comprehensive article) but unfortunately taxonomically legitimate and quite a common practise in botany. This is somehow similar to what happened to Clarke et al with their N. baramensis being replaced by N. hemsleyana:

http://carnivorousockhom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/nepenthes-hemsleyana-replacement-name.html

We have to carry our own burden: we should have been more cautious and we will be, next time.

émoticône smile

References:

Cheek, M. 2014, Nomen Nuvum Nepenthes, Planta Carnivora 36 (2): 44-45.