Rhus typhina

Known as Rhus typhina in virtually all floras, and so treated by Kartesz (1980 and 1999 but not 1994, where called Rhus hirta). The older Linnaean name 'Datisca hirta' has as its type not a member of the Datiscaceae, but an aberrant ("monstrous") specimen of the sumac species otherwise known as Rhus typhina. Without special action by an International Botanical Congress, the principle of nomenclatural priority would require the displacement of the familiar name Rhus typhina with the obscure name Rhus hirta, based on Datisca hirta, as done in the published 1994 Kartesz checklist (ed. 2). In 1998, the Committee for Spermatophyta published its decision (Taxon 47: 442) that the species name Datisca hirta should be nomenclaturally rejected (as now allowed under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature), allowing Datisca hirta to be ignored for purposes of priority, therefore permitting a return to the use of the familiar name Rhus typhina for this species. The formal designation of Datisca hirta (and hence Rhus hirta) as a nomenclaturally rejected name is in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, St. Louis ed. (2000), p. 398. LEM 3Jun98, rev. 17Oct01