Clerodendrum volubile Palisot de Beauvois (1805: 52

Meerts, Pierre, 2023, The genus Clerodendrum (Lamiaceae) in the flora of Central Africa (D. R. Congo, Rwanda, Burundi), Phytotaxa 594 (1), pp. 1-42 : 35

27. Clerodendrum volubile Palisot de Beauvois (1805: 52 , pl. 32); Baker (1900: 297); Durand & Durand (1909: 41); De Wildeman (1905: 310; 1912b: 38; 1920b: 176; 1922: 271); Thomas (1936: 72); Huber (1963: 444); Lebrun (1969: 155); Verdcourt (1992: 115); Lebrun & Stork (1997: 514); Akoegninou et al. (2006: 986); Hawthorne & Jongkind (2006: 424); Lisowski (2009: 365); Lejoly et al. (2010: 295); Pollard (2022: 38).

Type:— NIGERIA. Oware, Palisot de Beauvois (holotype: G00366383, iso-: P-JU, FI FI011120) .

Sarmentose shrub to small liana, occasionally trailing, up to 8 m long. Stem terete, glabrous, reddish, with pale lenticels, persistent petiole bases ca. 4 mm. Leaf: petiole 0.5–3.0(–4.5) cm, glabrous, canaliculate; lamina narrowly obovate to elliptic, more rarely ovate, 7.5–15(–16.5) × 2–6(–8.5) cm, attenuate or cuneate at base, apex acuminate, 5–7 veins on either side, wholly glabrous, upper surface glossy, margin entire or, rarely, with a few teeth in upper third. Inflorescence terminal: corymbose to hemispheric thyrse, 2.5–7(–15) × 4–10(–15) cm, made of dichasia on the 5–10 upper nodes of stem, occasionally with 1–2 remote branches, forming a pyramidal thyrse up to 15 × 12 cm, rachis 1.5–6(–12) cm, glabrous or puberulent only in upper part, each dichasium 7–30-flowered, branches slender, glabrous to puberulent, peduncles 1–5 cm, the lowermost ones in the axils of foliaceous bracts, the other in the axils of linear bracts 2–3 mm long. Flower: pedicel 4–20 mm, shortly beige to fulvous appressed pubescent; calyx: tube funnel shaped, ca. 1.5 mm long; green, glabrous to sparsely puberulent, widening into a cup-shaped limb, ca. 3 mm long, 4–7 mm diam., whitish, lobes obtuse-rounded to broadly triangular, 1–2 mm long, glabrous, gland-dotted; corolla: tube 6–8 mm, with sessile or stipitate glands, lobes 2.5–3 mm long, with stipitate glands on outer surface, cream, yellowish, to greenish white, occasionally fulvous puberulent on outer surface; stamens exserted 6–8(–12) mm, greenish, anther ca. 1 m long. Fruit 6–7 × 5–8 mm, 1- to 4-lobed, subtended by cupuliform calyx.

Distribution in Central Africa:—D.R. Congo.

Distribution elsewhere:— Angola, Benin, Cabinda, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo.

Habitat:—Heliophyte. C. volubile has a surprisingly broad ecological range. It is particularly frequent in the coastal region, as a characteristic component of coastal bush, thickets and scrub often on maritime sand, and in forest clearings and fringes ( Lebrun 1969). However it also occurs in a broad range of inland forest and savannah, often on moist soil, in more or less disturbed situations; 0– 600 m.

Selection of representative specimens:—D.R. CONGO. Côtier: Zambi, 2 August 1913, Bequaert 545 (BR!); s.l., 1923, Schouteden 33 (BR!); Vista [Nsiam Fumu], 1 July 1974, Pauwels 5210 (BR!, WAG). Mayombe: Luki, 30 July 1959, Compère 46 (BR!). Bas-Congo: Vanga, route de Kimvusa à Inga, 24 September 1959, Compère 479 (BR!); En aval de la Pointe Kalina, 30 September 1964, Pauwels 4727 (BR!, WAG); Mvuazi, 4 October 1951, Devred 863 (BR!, WAG). Kasaï: Région de Luebo, s.d., Achten 14 (BR!); Kamwandu, June 1957, Liben 3194 ( P); Sankuru, June 1903, Luja 12 (BR!); Kikwit, 21 November 1990, Masens 584 (BR!, WAG); Kapanga, June 1933, Overlaet 926 (BR!). Bas-Katanga: Parc National de l’Upemba , rivière Lupiala, 30 June 1945, de Witte 2381 (BR!); Merode, s.d., Vanderyst 23490 (BR!). Forestier Central: Bekondji-Boenga, 1 March 1958, C. Evrard 3590 (BR!); Wangata-Watsiko (env. D’ Eala), 25 August 1946, J. Léonard 391 (BR!); Yaselia (E Yangambi), 23 January 1936, Louis 1097 (BR!). Ubangui-Uele: District de l’ Ubangi, Libenge, 30 July 1913, Mestdagh 20 (BR!). Haut-Katanga: Parc national de l’Upemba, 1 September 1948, Van Meel in de Witte 4234 (BR!).