Tectaria colaniae (Tardieu & C. Chr.) S.Y. Dong, 2022

Dong, Shi-Yong, 2022, The new combination Tectaria colaniae and notes on the synonymy and distribution of Tectaria wigmanii (Tectariaceae), Phytotaxa 566 (2), pp. 245-248 : 245

Tectaria colaniae (Tardieu & C. Chr.) S.Y. Dong , comb. nov.

Basionym:— Ctenitopsis colaniae Tardieu-Blot and Christensen (1938: 86) .

Type:— VIETNAM. Hoa Binh Prov.: Ke Son , December 1926, Colani 3409 (lectotype, UC-421511 !, designated here; isolectotype, US-01580326!) .

When describing Ctenitopsis colaniae, Tardieu-Blot and Christensen (1938) cited Colani 3409 as the sole collection of their new species and noted “type in Herb. C. Chr. et herb. Mus. Paris”. I failed to locate the type specimens mentioned by the authors in BM or P, but found one duplicate (syntype) in UC and one in US (herbarium codes follow Thiers 2022). The two syntypes agree well with the original description by the authors and the one in UC is designated here as the lectotype of this species.

Tectaria colaniae appears to be a morphologically distinct species, though it is hitherto represented only by its type specimens. It is characterised by the free veins, subdimorphic sterile-fertile fronds, 1-pinnate-pinnatifid fronds each composed of two pairs of free pinnae and a pinnatifid apical lamina, and the shape of the basal pinna, which has its basal basiscopic segment slightly or obviously reduced ( Fig. 1 ). By the combination of these characters, T. colaniae is morphologically distinct and readily distinguished from other species of Tectaria . In the shape and size, the fronds of T. colaniae are quite similar to some sterile fronds occurring in T. nayarii Mazumdar (2014: 297) . However , Tectaria nayarii (formerly known as Heterogonium pinnatum [ Copeland 1906: 146] Holttum [1949: 163]) differs in having anastomosing veins and strongly contracted fertile fronds, and is distributed from Peninsular Thailand to Malesia and the Solomon Islands ( Holttum 1991; Chen & al. 2017). Though not yet sampled in any phylogenetic analyses, T. colaniae is presumed to be closely related to T. sagenioides ( Mettenius 1858: 397) Christenhusz (2010: 58) , as both species share the same pattern of venation and frond division, and have similarly shaped basal pinnae. Notably, T. colaniae differs from T. sagenioides in the deltoid (versus oblong and much longer) fronds and much fewer (2–3 versus generally 10–15) pairs of free pinnae.

Figures

FIGURE 1. The lectotype of Tectaria colaniae (Colani 3409 at UC).