Lectotypification of Carex nemorosa var. cuprina and clarification of C. cuprina (Cyperaceae)

For several decades during which Carex cuprina (Sandor ex Heuff.) T. Nendtv. ex A. Kern. has been regarded as conspecific with C. otrubae Podp. there has been discussion about what is the correct application of the name C. cuprina. It is demonstrated here that the original material of the basionym of C. cuprina, i.e. C. nemorosa var. cuprina Sandor ex Heuff. on sheet BP604990 in the herbarium of the Hungarian Natural History Museum (BP) in fact belongs to the species currently known as C. leersii F. W. Schultz, as T. Egorova already made clear during her visit to that herbarium in 2003. The name C. nemorosa var. cuprina is lectotypified with this specimen. Therefore the correct name for what has been variously called C. cuprina or C. otrubae is C. otrubae, whereas C. cuprina is an earlier name for C. leersii. The name C. leersii is already conserved against the earlier homonym C. leersii Willd. and the simultaneously published heterotypic synonym C. chabertii F. W. Schultz. It is suggested here that C. leersii should be proposed for conservation also against C. cuprina.