Corbichonia Scopoli (1777: 264)

Sukhorukov, Alexander P. & Kushunina, Maria, 2015, Taxonomy and chorology of Corbichonia (Lophiocarpaceae s. l.) with further description of a new species from Southern Africa, Phytotaxa 218 (3), pp. 227-240 : 228

Corbichonia Scopoli (1777: 264) ≡ Axonotechium Fenzl (1836: 354) .

Holotype:— Corbichonia decumbens ( Forsskål 1775: 103) Exell (1935: 80) .

Description: —Branched annual or perennial herbs (sometimes suffruticose) up to 70 cm, with glabrous or scarcely pubescent, angular or rounded stems; leaves alternate, exstipulate, shortly-petiolate, orbicular, obovate, ovoid or oblong, usually fleshy and glaucous or greyish; inflorescence bracteose, monochasial, branched; sepals 5, free, with whitish or lilac margins; petals (staminodial origin) 15–30, pink, lilac or rarely white; 10 to 20 normally developed stamens located in two (alternisepalous and antisepalous) whorls; stylodia 5, free and long; ovary superior, 5-locular; fruit a loculicidal capsule with the central column and accrescent septae; seeds 20–50, reniform, shiny, black, 1–1.2 mm long, with small hyaline funicular aril; seed-coat testa hard, 50–65 μm thick, with radial furrows, its outer (periclinal) cell walls convex, with obliquely oriented stalactites, with or without cylindrical outgrowths at the top, anticlinal walls warty; tegmen thin, up to 4 μm, 1–2-layered, with bar-thickening walls; embryo annular; perisperm abundant.

Notes: — Corbichonia was described by Scopoli (1777) who listed “ Orygia decumbens ” without transferring this species into the established genus, and the combination Corbichonia decumbens (Forsskål) Scopoli cannot be accepted (art. 35.2 of ICN, McNeill et al. 2012). The description of the genus Orygia Forsskål (1775: 103) is clearly based on Orygia portulacifolia Forsskål (1775: 103) with sepals consisting of two segments, and a three-loculicidal capsule that is peculiar to the genus Talinum Adanson (1763: 245) . O. portulacifolia was later transferred to the genus Talinum [ T. portulacifolium (Forsskål) Ascherson ex Schweinfurth (1896: 172) ]. The genus Orygia with the lectotype O. portulacifolia ( Exell, 1935) is thus synonymized with the genus Talinum .

Here the description of Corbichonia is improved with two details: (1) the number of staminodial petals can reach 30 (not only 20 according to all earlier descriptions), and (2) the cells of seed-coat testa have cylindrical outgrowths only in C. decumbens ( Hassan et al. 2005) , and they are absent in both C. exellii sp. nova and C. rubriviolacea .

The seeds of Corbichonia species are typical for the core Caryophyllales (for more see Sukhorukov et al. 2015), with hard seed-coat testa, thin tegmen with cells having bar-thickened walls, annular embryo and copious perisperm. Three species in Africa and Asia; all species are found in southwest Africa.