Incorrect synonymy puts African-Asian plant genus in South America

18217
Reporter: rdmpage
Assignee: fmendez
Type: Feedback
Summary: Incorrect synonymy puts African-Asian plant genus in South America
Priority: Major
Resolution: Fixed
Status: Closed
Created: 2016-02-08 11:45:37.883
Updated: 2016-07-15 16:48:57.095
Resolved: 2016-07-15 16:48:57.057
        
Description: The genus Baccharoides http://www.gbif.org/species/3087252 occurs in Africa and Asian, but the GBIF maps shows occurrences in North and South America. Some of this looks like cultivated specimens (e.g., http://www.gbif.org/occurrence/415928562/verbatim and http://www.gbif.org/occurrence/1090550838/verbatim ) but most are due to incorrect synonymy resulting from ignoring the authorship of a name that has a homonym (sigh).

Looking at the results for http://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?HAS_GEOSPATIAL_ISSUE=false&GEOMETRY=-140.89%20-50.69%2C-140.89%2015.18%2C-30.67%2015.18%2C-30.67%20-50.69%2C-140.89%20-50.69&TAXON_KEY=3087252 there are occurrences for "Vernonia macrocephala A.Rich." which are treated as a synonym of "Baccharoides adoensis". The verbatim records gives the name as "Vernonia macrocephala Less." (not "A. Rich.").

"Vernonia macrocephala Less."  is the basionym of "Lessingianthus macrocephalus  (Less.)" H.Rob.http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=961988-1 and so the occurrence is actually of a member of the genus South American genus Lessingianthus. The name "Vernonia macrocephala A.Rich." http://www.ipni.org/ipni/idPlantNameSearch.do?id=258770-1 is, I gather, a homonym of "Vernonia macrocephala Less." and is regarded as a synonym of "Baccharoides adoensis" (an African species).

In summary, it looks like the author name has been ignored when interpreting "Vernonia macrocephala Less." and hence it's been mapped to the African "Vernonia macrocephala A.Rich."  when it should have been mapped to the South American "Vernonia macrocephala Less."
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Author: rdmpage
Comment: An example of what happens when author names are ignored when matching names.
Created: 2016-02-08 11:47:59.986
Updated: 2016-02-08 11:47:59.986

Author: mdoering@gbif.org
Comment: Indeed. And an example of why the backbone must be able to handle the same name with different authors - at least as synonyms. Good catch which I am going to add to the new backbone assertions that need to pass before we release a new backbone into the wild: https://github.com/gbif/checklistbank/blob/master/checklistbank-cli/src/main/java/org/gbif/checklistbank/nub/NubAssertions.java
Created: 2016-02-08 18:06:52.384
Updated: 2016-02-08 18:06:52.384

Author: mdoering@gbif.org
Created: 2016-07-15 15:40:49.331
Updated: 2016-07-15 16:48:05.163
        
This record also gets interpreted wrongly: http://www.gbif-uat.org/occurrence/1228266017/verbatim

It claims to be "Vernonia retusa Sch. Bip." but our backbone only has "Vernonia retusa Sch.Bip. ex H.Rob." and "Vernonia retusa R.E.Fr."
Our author comparator strips of all ex authors so "Sch.Bip." is not matched.

Would it make sense to always create a synonym in the backbone with just the ex author for any name with ex authors? New issue POR-3147 created