Albizia macrophylla (Bunge) P.C.Huang

Bai, Lin, 2024, Notes on Albizia (Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae-mimosoid clade) in China, Phytotaxa 633 (3), pp. 189-214 : 206-209

6. Albizia macrophylla (Bunge) P.C.Huang in Journ. Nanjing Technol. Coll. Forest Prod.1982(2): 144. 1982 ex Chakrab.

& M.Gangop. in J. Eco. Taxon. Bot. 15(2):450. 1991 ≡ Acacia macrophylla Bunge, Enum. Pl. China Bor.: 20. 1833.

Lectotype (designated by Nielsen in Adansonia sér. 2, 19(2): 217. 1979): CHINA, Pan-Schan [Tianjin Municipality,

Panshan Mountain ], A. Bunge s.n. (LE barcode 01015729) ( Fig. 5C )) ; isolectotype (probable): K barcodes K000800903

& K000800904, L barcode l0018492 ( Fig. 8 ).

= Albizia esquirolii H.Lév., Fl. Kouy-Tchéou : 224. 1914. Lectotype (first-step, designated by Nielsen in Adansonia sér. 2, 19(2): 217. 1979): Bodinier 2634 (P);— Lectotype, second-step (designated here): CHINA, Guizhou Province, Tou-chan , 3 June 1899, J. Cavalerie in herb. E.M. Bodinier 2634 (P barcode P02142864) ( Fig. 5D ) ; isolectotype: P02142862 & P02142863.

= Albizia longepedunculata Hayata, Icon. Pl. Formosan. 9: 37. 1920. Type: CHINA, Taiwan, Byôritsu, Taiko [Miaoli County, Taihu Village], 1908, B. Hayata & U. Mori s.n. (TAIF accession number 12631).

Distinctive features:— Branchlets pruinose, leaves and branches covered with short, white hairs. Petiole glands oblong, obovate, or ovate, elliptic, low domed to obconical, 2–5 × 1.5–2.5 mm, velvety; rachilla glands positioned below the uppermost 1(–2) pair of leaflets, velvety. Pinnae 1–3(–4) pairs on mature leaves, up to 7 pairs on juvenile leaves. Leaflets 6–12 pairs per pinna on mature leaves, up to 19 pairs on juvenile leaves, oblong, 23–35 × 9–16 mm, base asymmetric, angular to bluntly angular, sometimes rounded at distal pointing part, cuneate at proximal pointing part, rounded or emarginate at apex; main-vein excentric, removed about 3–5 mm from the upper margin (1/3 of the breadth of the leaflet), accessory veins 3–4 with the innermost one extending for 1/2–2/3 the length of leaflet, lateral veins 3–4. Peduncles 25–75 mm long. Pedicles 1–2.5 mm long. Calyx 2–3.5 mm long, pubescent. Corolla 5–7 mm long, pubescent. Stamens white to cream at base, often pink at upper part, but sometimes white or cream throughout. Pods oblong to elliptic, 90–150 × 18–30(–35) mm, always stipitate (5–15 mm long), base attenuate, never sessile and rounded.

Typification:— There has been confusion regarding reference, pagination and date of effective publication of Acacia macrophylla . It was published on page 20 of the independently paginated preprint “Enumeratio plantarum, quas in China boreali collegit, anno 1831” ( Bunge 1833), which, according to Stearn (1941), was distributed in 1833. Identical content, but paginated differently, was subsequently published in “Mem. pres. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersb. 2: 75–148. 1835 ”, with Acacia macrophylla appearing on page 94 ( Bunge 1835). Therefore, the preprint (Enum. Pl. China Bor.: 20. 1833) is considered to be the protologue of Acacia macrophylla , in accordance with ICN Art. 31.1 Ex. 2. When Prain (1897) published the new combination Albizia macrophylla , the basionym was erroneously given as “Mem. Acac. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg Divers Savans 2: 94 (1833) ”, however, this does not invalidate the combination according to ICN, Art. 41.3.

Bunge (1833) did not cite any collections in the protologue of Acacia macrophylla , but mentioned its habitat as “saxosis montium Pan-Schan”. According to Bretschneider (1898: 327), Pan-Schan is the Panshan Mountain, 53 miles [85 km] northeast of Beijing. This mountain now belong to Tianjin Municipality. Nielsen (1979) cited an unnumbered specimen of A. Bunge at LE as holotype, which appears to be the only specimen of the species in that herbarium. It has a label annotated by A. Bunge as “ Acacia macrophylla Herb. Ledebour. Ch [ina] b[orealis] Mis. Bunge”. Since there is no specific collection cited in protologue, the Nielsen (1979) holotype citation is here corrected to lectotype, in according with ICN art. 9.10. Although this specimen had been annotated as lectotype by N.N. Imkhanitskaya in 2001 it appears that this typification has never been published. Nielsen also annotated three other unnumbered specimens that are identified as Acacia macrophylla at K and L (barcodes K000800903, K000800904 & l0018492) as isotypes. Although these specimens all belong to A. macrophylla , and they all have a label or annotation “Acad. Petrop” or “ex Herb. Petrop”, indicating that they may represent original material, it is impossible to establish with certainty that they are duplicates of the LE specimen.

Léveillé (1914 –1915) cited two collections in the protologue of Albizia esquirolii , namely, Cavalerie in herb. Bodinier 2634 and J. Esquirol 431. Nielsen (1979) cited Bodinier 2634 at P as holotype. However, since two collections were cited in the protologue and neither was nominated as holotype, Nielsen’s citation must be regarded as a lectotypification. Furthermore, because there are three specimens of this collection at P, a second-step lectotypification is needed in conformity with ICN (Art. 9.17). Therefore, the P specimen with barcode P 02142864, which has the bestpreserved leaves and flower heads is selected above as the lectotype of the name. Only one (an isolectotype) specimen at herb. P (barcode P 02142862) possesses a label showing original collection details. The handwritten details shows that the specimen was collected by J. Cavalerie although the label is that of E.M. Bodinier. However, on the other two specimens at P (including the lectotype), are labelled as having been collected by J. Cavalerie & E.M. Bodinier. Here the citation in protologue is followed. The type locality “Tou-chan” may refer to Dushan County or Dushan Village in Anlong County, according to Editorial Committee FRPS (1974). The present study was unable to find reliable resources to establish which of the two counties the type locality occurs in. Albizia macrophylla has been collected from or near both these counties.

Hayata (1920) mentioned that Albizia longepedunculata was collected by B. Hayata & U. Mori at Taiko in Byôritsu, Formosa [= Taiwan], in July 1918. Huang et al. (1989) cited Hayata & Mori s.n. at TAIF as isotype, probably presuming that the main set of this collection was deposited at TI, which is where the majority of Hayata material is located ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976 –2009). There is one specimen of A. longepedunculata at TAIF; it was collected by the same two collectors from exactly the same locality as is given in the protologue, but the date of collection is given as: July Meiji 41 year (which is 1908). This specimen fits the description in the protologue. Having checked the online database of TAIF it was seen that B. Hayata & U. Mori gathered up to nine collections in Byôritsu in 1908, but there is no specimen collected by B. Hayata and U. Mori in 1918. It therefore seems most likely that the 1908 specimen at TAIF belongs to original material of this species, and that the date citation (1918) that is given in the protologue is a mistake. This specimen consists only of immature pods, but the protologue also described the inflorescence and flowers in good detail. This specimen therefore is clearly not the only one used by Hayata (1920). Since the type specimens of the legumes at TI have not yet digitised, the TAIF specimen is cited here merely as a type, and its type status awaits further study.

Habitat & Phenology:— This species occurs in dense to open forest, at elevations varying from ca. 100 m to 2200 m. Flowering starts in early April (but probably May for most regions) and lasts until early July. Fruits start to mature in October.

Distribution:— This species is the most widespread Albizia in China. It extends from Yunnan, Sichuan and Gansu in the west to Taiwan in the east and from Hebei, Shandong and Tianjin in the north to Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong in the south ( Fig. 9 ). It does not occur in Hainan Province, where all previous records of A. kalkora represent misidentifications of A. odoratissima ( Linnaeus 1782: 437)( Bentham 1844:88) or A. corniculata ( Loureiro 1790: 651) ( Druce 1917: 603) . Nielsen (1979, 1981) reported A. macrophylla (as A. kalkora sensu Prain ) as occurring in northern Vietnam. However, all three collections cited (H.F. Bon 1953, H.F. Bon 3425 and H.F. Bon 4753) and the illustration (Pl. 13. 8–14) in Nielsen (1981) are A. calcarea . Nevertheless, the species was recently collected from the high altitude Mt. Fansipan in Lao Cai Province in North Vietnam, and is cited below. Hirata (1984) and Oh & Pak (2001) reported this species for Japan and Korea respectively, but specimens from these areas have not been examined for this study. These occurrence are therefore not shown on the species distribution map ( Fig. 9 ).

Notes:— Since its publication, Acacia macrophylla has long been confused with other species. Bentham (1844) regarded Acacia macrophylla as a merely a hairy form of A. lebbeck , and he later treated it under a synonym of A. lebbeck ( Bentham 1875) . Baker (1878) treated it as a synonym of A. jullibrisin . When Forbes & Hemsley (1887) published the first enumeration of the genus in China, they misidentified several specimens of the species from northern China as A. lebbeck (which is not native in China) and cited A. macrophylla as its synonym, following Bentham (1875). Prain (1897) treated Acacia macrophylla as a synonym of A. kalkora . Most authors subsequently adopted the name A. kalkora for this species in China and treated A. macrophylla as its synonym, e.g. Gagnepain (1913), Sargent & Wilson (1917), Ricker (1918), Huang (1983), Wu (1988), Wu & Nielsen (2010) and Zhu (2023). Although Nielsen (1979) treated A. macrophylla as a synonym of A. kalkora , he acknowledged that the name A. kalkora had been misapplied to this taxa and also noted that macrophylla is the earliest available epithet for this entity if true A. kalkora proves to be a dubious name (see below). Huang (1982) noted that the correct name for “ A. kalkora ” in China should be Albizia macrophylla (Bunge) P.C.Huang and commented that detail notes would be provided in a future publication. This combination was not validated by Huang (1982) since a reference to the basionym was not given, and I have not located any subsequent treatment of this issue by Huang. However, Chakrabarty & Gangopadhyay (1991) formally published the combination Albizia macrophylla and rectified the application of names. This name is here introduced to the flora of China.

Albizia macrophylla can be easily distinguished from the remaining taxa mentioned in this study by the glands on the petiole (and rachis and rachilla) being always densely hairy (velvety), the innermost accessory vein extending for 1/2–2/3 the length of the leaflets and pods are noticeably stalked (5–15 mm long) with attenuate bases.

Colour of the stamens in Albizia macrophylla are variable. They range from white to yellow, with or without pink apices. Based on specimen records, the colour variation occurs on plants in almost all Chinese provinces.

Representative specimens examined:— CHINA. Anhui Province. Anqing City , Yuexi County, elev. 750 m, 20 September 1953, the n ature reserve 6982 (IBSC barcode 0160305) ; Cizhou City , Dongzhi County, elev. 400 m, 18 August 2006, M. Liu et al. A150022 (KUN barcode 1212654) ; Liu’an city, Huoshan County, elev. 600 m, 7 June 1981, M.B. Deng & G. Yao 80813 (HHBG barcode HZ019115) ; Xuancheng city, Guangde county , elev. 300 m, 24 July 1959, Guangbai Expedition 3157 (NAS barcode NAS00377426) . Chongqing Municipality. Fengjie County, elev. 1400 m, 25 June 1958, C.Y. Chang 25339 (NAS barcode NAS00377401, PE barcode 00322389) . Fujian Province. Nanping City, Shaowu City , 11 September 1936, H.C. Zhou 6101 (IBSC barcode 0160234) ; Ningde City, Fu’an City , 1 September 1958, Fujian Forest University Expedition 32209 (FUS barcode 25173) ; Quanzhou City, Dehua City , 26 September 1930, P.C. Chung 84 (PE barcode 00322432) ; Sanming City , Shaxian County, 20 August 1958, Fudan University 53122 (FJFC barcode FJFC0009219) ; Zhangzhou City , Pinghe County, 13 August 1986, G.S. He 2713 (FJSI barcode FJSI026749) . Gansu Province. Longnan City , Chengxian County, 19 August 1939, W.X. Hsia 6139 (WUK barcode WUK0092338, PE barcode 00322208) ; Guangdong Province. Heyuan City, Heping County, elev. 400 m, 3 August 1983, C.G. Zhang et al. 296 (IBSC barcode 0160139). Qingyuan City, Liannan Yao Autonomous County , elev. 730 m, 16 August 1958, P.C. Tam 5903 4 (IBSC barcodes 0160155 & 0160155, KUN barcode 598986, NAS barcode NAS00377528, PE barcode 00322444), Qingyuan City, Lianshan Zhuang & Yao autonomous County, elev. 900 m, 7 May 1999, F.Y. Zeng et al. 215 (IBSC barcode 0705077) ; Qingyuan City, Lianzhou City , elev. 720 m, 18 May 1999, F.Y. Zeng et al. 776 (IBSC barcode 0705084) ; Qingyuan City , Yangshan County, elev. 900 m, 28 May 1956, L. Teng 1084 (HITBC barcode 10609, IBSC barcode 0160143, KUN barcode 598983, PE barcode 00322442) ; Shaoguan City , Shixing County, elev. 300–650 m, 13 July 1958, L. Teng 682 (KUN barcode 598984, PE barcode 00322441, HITBC barcode barcodes 10608 & 10620, IBSC barcode 0160148) ; Guangxi Province. Baise City , Lingyun County, elev. 824 m, 30 April 2013, Lingyun Expedition 451027130430018 (GXMG barcode GXMG0140655, GXMI barcode GXMI064414) ; Guilin City, Gongcheng Yao autonomous County , 12 August 1957, Gongcheng Survey 115 (IBK barcode IBK00067895) ; Tongren City , Dejiang County, 28 May 1930, P.C. Chung 714 (GFS barcode GFS0019697, KUN barcode 599074, PE barcodes 00322419, 00322421 & 00322422) ; Hebei Province. Tangshan City, Zunhua City , August 1936, Y. Liou 12001 (PE barcode 00322145) ; Xingtai City , Neiqiu County, elev. 800 m, 24 June 1950, Y. Liou 12888 (PE barcode 00322142) ; Henan Province. Anyang City , Linzhou County, June 1955, J. Chen 419 (HENU barcodes 260749 & 260750) ; Jiaozuo City, Qingyang City , 18 August 2008, F.Q. Li 5 (HENU barcode 1004475) ; Hubei Province. 1885–1888, A. Henry 6203 ( US barcode 02194992) Enshi Tujia & Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Badong County, elev. 874 m, 11 June 2016, X.D. Xu et. al. 2161967 (CCNU barcodes 16005325 & 16005326) ; Xiangyang City , Baokang County, elev. 1019 m, 15 June 2016, X.D. Xu et al. 2162019 (CCNU barcode 16005509) ; Hunan Province. Hengyang City, Hengshan County, elev. 500 m, 18 May 2002, Z.H. Hu 154 (PE barcodes 00460835 & 00460836) ; Jiangsu Province. Changshu City, 9 October 1949, T.Y. Cheo 2235 (NAS barcode NAS00118464) ; Jiangxi Province. Ganzhou City, Dayu County, elev. 650 m, 12 July 1965, M.H.Nieh et. al. 9525 (LBG barcode 21672) ; Shandong Province. Binzhou City, Zouping County, elev. 167 m, 21 April 2018, J.L. Lan 201804021-1 (QFNU barcode QFNU0047403) ; Shanxi Province. Yuncheng City, Danqu County, 16 June 1959, S.Y. Bao 2018 (PE barcodes 00322151 & 00322152) ; Shaanxi Province. Hanzhong City, Fuping County, elev. 800 m, 10 May 2008, S.F. Li et al. 10164 (FJSI barcodes 9972 & 9973) ; Sichuan Province. Ganzi Zang Autonomous Prefecture, Luding County, elev. 1100 m, 5 October 1981, G.H. Xu 26366 (CDBI barcodes CDBI0055536 & CDBI0055537) ; Taiwan. Hsinchu [Xinzhu County], Yaichi Shimada 4477C (TAI 058031), ibidem, Yaichi Shimada 4477B (TAI 058033). Tianjing Municipality. Jizhou District , 5 July 1956, the herbarium 1966 (PE barcode 00322144) ; Yunnan Province. Honghe Hani & Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Jinping Miao, Yao & Dai Autonomous County, elev. 1859 m, 10 May 2012, Jinping Expedition 5325300439 (IMDY barcode IMDY0009180) ; ibidem, elev. 1890 m, 11 May 1956, Sino-Soviet Expedition 1190 (PE barcode 00322666); Honghe Hani & Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Lüchun County, elev. 1700 m, 11 May 1974, Lvchun Expedition 715 (KUN barcode 599012) ; Pingbian Miao Autonomous County, elev. 1900–2000 m, 19 May 1934, H.T.Tsai 55252 (IBSC barcode 0160346, KUN barcode 0599000, PE barcode 00322483 WUK barcode WUK0034888) ; Kunming City, Xishan District , elev. 2000 m, 5 June 1945, T.N. Liou 13247 (PE barcode 00322484, IBSC barcode 0160333) ; Lincang City , Fengqing County, elev. 2200 m, 3 June 1933, T.T. Yu 16102 (PE barcodes 00322476 & 00322477) ; Pu’er City , elev. 1950 m, 15 June 1993, H. Peng & B. Bai 277 (KUN barcode 599016) ; Wenshan Zhuang Autonomous Prefecture , Malipo County, elev. 1600 m, 19 May 1962, K. M. Feng 22656 (KUN barcode 599009, IBSC barcode 0160337) ; Zhejiang Province. Zhoushan City, Putuo County, 6 June 2008, Li et al. PT08374 (ZJFC barcodes 94954 & 94957) ; VIETNAM. Lao Cai Province. Sapa, Fansipan Mountain , elev. 2000 m, 6 July 2023, L. Bai et. al. BLSC-150 (IBSC) .

Figures

FIGURE 5. Type specimens. A. Lectotype of A. garrettii I.C.Nielsen (inset: lower surface of leaflet, showing venation). B. Lectotype of A. lebbeck (L.) Benth. (inset: lower surface of leaflet, showing venation). C. Lectotype of A. macrophylla (Bunge) Chakrab. & M.Gangop. (inset: lower surface of leaflet, showing venation). D. Lectotype of A. esquirolii H. Lév. (inset: lower surface of leaflet from an isolectotype (P barcode P02142863), showing venation).

FIGURE 8. Albizia macrophylla (Bunge) Chakrab. & M.Gangop. A. Flowering branches. B. Young stem and older stem, showing prominent lenticels. C. A leaf from flowering branch. D. A pinna (showing venation of leaflets). E–F. Petiole glands (notice the hairs); G. A flower, an inflorescence and two seeds (from top to bottom). H. Flowers (showing the calyx and corolla lobes densely hairy). Bars=1 cm, except otherwise indicated. Vouchers: A–E, G (except seeds) & H are based on L. Bai & J.Y. Jin BLSC-69 (IBSC), F is based on L. Bai BLSC-324 (IBSC) and seed in G is based on H.F. Tan 700582 (IBSC). Photos: Lin Bai.

FIGURE 9. Distribution of Albizia macrophylla (Bunge) Chakrab. & M.Gangop., occurrence in Japan and Korea is not shown.