There was a project undertaken by Natural History Museum London, called, The Linnaean Plant Name Typification Project. Headed by Dr. Charles Jarvis a very senior taxonomist, who happens to be on my friend list. They came out with a book called, "Order Out of Chaos: Linnaean Plant Names and Their Types". In this he provided information on the status of Type Specimens of Linnaeus and of those he referred and the species what he had described. The books gives the details of type and lectotypes of all the taxa described by Linnaeus along with their currently accepted names. According to the book, the currently accepted name is Mukia maderaspatana (L.) M.Roem.. The book was released in 2007 and I am yet to have a copy of it :(.
IPNI does provide the synonyms as well as basionyms and in this particular taxa, it claims Cucumis as basionym. If you check the record history of the taxa then there are editings done by "BARKER". I know Dr. Tina Barker at IPNI personally, so I may ask her, but as the site claims, most probably, her answer will be same. Even JSTOR accepts Mukia as accepted name. http://plants.jstor.org/flora/ftea001827 (I am not sure if you can open this link, I can because I am a member of it). Note that GRIN database claims that it was last updated in 2008, but updation there may not mean updation in the synonymy but also any other information on the webpage of particular species, that may include other references. IPNI may be wrong, and so can be GRIN, but I trust Dr. Charles Jarvis and JSTOR. I am not forcing my point here. I am giving my reference and you are giving yours. We just need to check who is correct. Both have our references to support our views. Regards Pankaj -- *********************************************** "TAXONOMISTS GETTING EXTINCT AND SPECIES DATA DEFICIENT !!" Pankaj Kumar Ph.D. (Orchidaceae) Research Associate Greater Kailash Sacred Landscape Project Department of Habitat Ecology Wildlife Institute of India Post Box # 18 Dehradun - 248001, India
