Etymology:"The name commemorates Clifford Halliday Gittins (1904-1995), an amateur botanical collector of mostly Queensland plant specimens."
Comment:Although Jessup indicated that Symplocos gittinsii was a "nom. et stat. nov." it is treated here as a comb. et stat. nov., since Nooteboom's original misspelling of the epithet is considered to be a correctable error under ICBN Art. 60.1 (Vienna Code (2006)).