Abstract
Cynomorium Linnaeus (1753: 970) is the only member of the family Cynomoriaceae Endl. ex Lind. (APG 2016, López-Sáez & Villar 2002, Christenhusz & Byng 2016), and contains only two species of root holoparasitic plants (obligate parasite) (see e.g., Léonard 1986), C. coccineum Linnaeus (1753: 970) which is native to the North African, South European and Near Eastern deserts and subdeserts (Webb 1964, Pignatti 1982, Villar 1997, López-Sáez & Villar 2002, Fennane 2007), and C. songaricum Ruprecht (1869: 73) from Central Asia (Léonard 1986, Webb 1964, Villar 1997, Chen & Funston 2007). A lectotype for this name was designated by Gorshkova (1949: 502) as “Type in Leningrad” (here corrected to lectotype according to Art. 9.9 of the ICN, McNeill et al. 2012), based on a specimen collected in Valley of Koshkar River, in Central Asia, which was apparently kept at LE (V.L. Komarov Botanical Institute, Saint Petersburg, Russia). However, unfortunately no specimens of C. songaricum annotated as type were found in the herbarium LE, though further search is required (Irina Illarionova, pers. comm.).