Thismia caudata Maas and Maas

Firstly introduced to science in a talk by P. Taubert on the 13th of October 1894 held at a convention of the 'Botanischer Verein der Provinz Brandenburg'. However, the talk was only printed as a stub of 15 lines, stating the two new genera Glaziocharis and Triscyphus, since Dr. Taubert intended to publish it elsewhere. Unfortunately, Taubert died from yellow feaver on the 1st of January 1896 in Manaus, before he could finish the manuscript. Hence, Warming (1901) presented Tauberts description of Glaziocharis macahensis. This name was kept by Schlechter (1921) and Jonker (1938). However, because it only differs in tepal structures from other Thismia species and due to the wide variability of tepal structures in the whole tribe, Maas and Maas transferred it to the genus Thismia in Maas et al. (1986). Since the name Thismia macahensis has already been used by von Müller (1891), a new name was required: Thismia caudata. This species probably is extinct, it has not been recollected since the type collection of Glaziou in 1892 from Alto Macahé in Rio de Janeiro. Interestingly, there is a very similar species in Japan, Thismia abei, which shares the feature of dome-like, imbricate inner whorl of tepals with peltate appendages.