The Juglandaceae species Pterocarya serrata C.K.Schneid. was first described in 1912, but its assumed holotype, a flowering E. H. Wilson collection in the Vienna herbarium, was destroyed during World War II. Schneider described P. serrata as ‘fruits unknown’ because he thought that a fruiting specimen, collected under the same number, was a mixed collection. Pre-1958, citation of a single collection does not automatically constitute a type, but we here accept the Vienna material as the lost holotype and select the A duplicate with the most precise location information as the lectotype, with isolectotypes in at least six other herbaria. Additionally, we designate a fruiting specimen as the epitype.