Molecular sequencing of Northeast Pacific type material reveals two earlier names for Prionitis lyallii, Prionitis jubata and Prionitis sternbergii, with brief comments on Grateloupia versicolor (Halymeniaceae, Rhodophyta)

William Henry Harvey described seven varieties of his new species Prionitis lyallii on the basis of material collected by Dr. David Lyall at Esquimalt (Vancouver Island), British Columbia, Canada and by C. B. Wood in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Labeled specimens of four of the varieties (depauperata, dilitata, intermedia and normalis) that were located in Harvey's herbarium (Trinity College Dublin) all represent the same species on the basis of internal transcribed spacer 1 and partial rbcL sequences. The specimen labeled var. normalis (P. lyallii var. lyallii) is selected as the lectotype of the species, and it is recommended that no varieties be recognized formally or informally. When J. Agardh erected Prionitis in 185 1, Prionitis jubata and Prionitis sternbergii were among the nine species recognized, but both names fell into disuse, the former out of neglect, although it was said to have been collected at Sitka, Alaska, USA, and the latter due to uncertainty about its identity and provenance. Type material of P. jubata, Sphaerococcus sternbergii, the basionym of P. sternbergii, and type material of P. lyallii have identical partial rbcL sequences. Lectotypes are designated for each species. On the basis of the principle of priority, the correct name for this common Northeast Pacific species is P. sternbergii. Grateloupia versicolor, believed to have been collected at Punta St. Agustin, Oxaca, Mexico and with which P. sternbergii had at one time been placed into synonymy, is a distinct species. Haenke, one of two botanists on the Malaspina expedition, collected P. sternbergii in 1791 either in Nootka Sound (Vancouver Island), British Columbia, Canada or from Monterey, California, USA.