Mucuna Adanson (1763: 325)

Krishnaraj, Moothedathu Venugopalan Nair & Mohanan, Narayanan Nair, 2012, Notes on the identity and status of two Legumes (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae) from India, Phytotaxa 66 (1), pp. 13-20 : 16

Mucuna Adanson (1763: 325)

Thothathri & Ravikumar reported a new variety, Mucuna pruriens var. thekkadiensis Thothathri & Ravikumar (1997: 703) from Thekkady forest, Idukki district of Kerala. They described their new variety as follows: “ foliolis anguste rotundatis ad apicem, albido-brunneo sericeo tomentosis, leguminibusque non-plicatisque” [leaflets narrowly rounded at apex, whitish brown silky tomentose and without plaited pods]. Our study revealed that the above characters are varying continuously. The leaf apex is rounded or sometimes shortly acuminate at apex. The nature of the indumentum in pods varies during the post maturity periods and therefore these character states does not hold up. The whitish brown silky nature of the indumentum is present at pre-maturity periods and gradually turns to brown color and finally become ferruginous hirsute or blackish. The floral parts (vexillum, wing petals, keel petals, androecium and gynoecium) are similar to those of M. pruriens var. hirsuta ( Wight & Arnott 1834: 254) Wilmot-Dear (1987: 42) and M. pruriens ( Linnaeus 1754: 23) Candolle (1825: 405) var. pruriens . Moreover in the subgenus Stizolobium ( Browne 1756: 290) Prain (1897: 404) , the pods are never plaited. Some of the species may have (inconspicuous) rounded ribs or ridges. The pods are either S-shaped or curved at base or apex, and straight pods are rare in the subgenus. Therefore the observations given by Thothathri & Ravi Kumar (1997) in M. pruriens var. thekkadiensis are questionable. After examining both the type specimens of Mucuna pruriens var. hirsuta and of Mucuna pruriens var. thekkadiensis , as well as specimens housed at MH, RHK and TBGT and our own collections of living plants, we synonymize M. pruriens var. thekkadiensis under M. pruriens var. hirsuta .