Editing Archontophoenix (section)

===The Species: ===
The taxonomic history of
<i>A. cunninghamiana</i> began in
1857 when W. Hooker described <i>Seaforthia elegans</i> in
Botanical Magazine. There was some confusion in regards to
the true identity of the taxon which he intended to describe;
some of the accompanying illustrations depicted what we now
know as <i> Ptychosperma elegans</i>
as well as <i>A. cunninghamiana</i>. The following year,
Hermann Wendland clarified the situation with his description
of <i>Ptychosperma cunninghamiana</i>  in Botanische
Zeitung. Subsequently Wendland and Drude renamed it
<i> Archontophoenix cunninghamiana</i>
in 1875 in Linnaea when they created
<i>Archontophoenix</i> as a new genus.
<i> A. alexandrae</i>
was first described in 1866 as <i>Ptychosperma alexandrae</i>
by Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta Phytographiae
Australiae. 

The early history of this species is not as
complex as <i>A. cunninghamiana</i>; Wendland and Drude
transferred it to <i>Archontophoenix</i> in Linnaea in 1875.
Two subspecies of <i> A. alexandrae</i> have been named, <i> A. alexandrae</i>
var. <i>schizanthera</i> by Wendland & Drude in the same publication,
and <i> A. alexandrae</i>
var. <i>beatricea</i> ( the latter originally as <i>P. beatricea</i>
by von Mueller in 1882), both of which now appear to be
unnecessary considering the overall variability of that
species.

(by John Dowe from '''''Palms & Cycads''''' No. 39, Apr-Jun 1993)
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[[Category:Palms|Archontophoenix]]