Vadensea oblongifolia (Engl.) Jongkind & O.Lachenaud, 2019

Jongkind, Carel C. H. & Lachenaud, Olivier, 2019, Vadensea (Icacinaceae), a new genus to accommodate continental African species of Desmostachys, Phytotaxa 405 (5), pp. 237-247 : 240

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.405.5.2

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03BB87A4-3378-FFBE-FF25-FBD5FD5CB41B

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Vadensea oblongifolia (Engl.) Jongkind & O.Lachenaud
status

 

1. Vadensea oblongifolia (Engl.) Jongkind & O.Lachenaud View in CoL , comb. nov. ( Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 & 2 View FIGURE 2 )

Basionym:— Alsodeiopsis oblongifolia Engler (1898: 480) .

Homotypic synonyms:— Desmostachys brevipes var. oblongifolia (Engl.) Boutique (1960: 278) ; Desmostachys oblongifolius (Engl.) Villiers (1973a: 48) . Type :— CAMEROON. Bipindi, am weg nach Ampoa, Dec 1896 (fl.), Zenker 1221 (holotype B destroyed; lectotype designated here, 2 sheets, P00418041! & P00418042!; isotypes E00414139!, K000226127!) .

Heterotypic synonyms:— Pyrenacantha brevipes Engler (1909: 187) , syn. nov.; Desmostachys brevipes (Engl.) Sleumer (1941: 359) . Type :— CAMEROON. Bipindi, May 1904 (fl.,fr.), Zenker 3086 (holotype B destroyed; lectotype designated here HBG517954!; isotypes BR0000006248956 !, K000226252!, L0014730!, M0108938!, MO-357823 !, P00418040!, WU0039079!, WU0039080!) .

Distribution and ecology:— Southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea ( Rio Muni), Gabon, and disjunct in east-central D.R. Congo; might be expected in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville); undergrowth of lowland and submontane forest, 60–1000 m in elevation.

Notes:— This species, as delimited here, is very variable in inflorescence characters. Some specimens, including the type, have the inflorescences <30 mm long, glomeruliform to shortly spicate, or sometimes densely crowded and shortly branched (Farron 7284, Mézili 236). Other specimens have elongate spikes up to 250 mm long, and have previously been separated as Desmostachys brevipes ( Villiers 1973a, 1973b). In Cameroon and Gabon both types of inflorescence occur, while in D.R. Congo only condensed inflorescences are found. A collection with a long and much branched inflorescence ( Bos 4791) is maybe pathological. Long and short inflorescences may occur on the same twig (e.g. in the K isotype of D. brevipes ), and no additional differences have been found to support the separation of two taxa; Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 illustrates the flowers from a specimen with only short inflorescences (JJ de Wilde 929 7; Fig. 1E & F View FIGURE 1 ) and from one with only long inflorescences (JJ de Wilde 8348; Fig. 1A–C View FIGURE 1 ). The epithet oblongifolia has priority over brevipes , though mistakenly treated as a variety of the latter by Boutique (1960).

According to the collecting notes of J. Louis, local people in Yangambi, D.R. Congo, apparently separate two varieties of this plant: one with red fruits, where roots are used as an aphrodisiac; the other with orange fruits, not used for that purpose. Herbarium specimens of both forms, however, seem to be inseparable, and the difference in fruit colour might be related to their stage of maturation.

Kingdom

Plantae

Phylum

Tracheophyta

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Icacinales

Family

Icacinaceae

Genus

Vadensea

Kingdom

Plantae

Phylum

Tracheophyta

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Icacinales

Family

Icacinaceae

Genus

Pyrenacantha

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