Clerodendrum thyrsoideum Gürke (1900: 293)

Meerts, Pierre, 2023, The genus Clerodendrum (Lamiaceae) in the flora of Central Africa (D. R. Congo, Rwanda, Burundi), Phytotaxa 594 (1), pp. 1-42 : 33

25. Clerodendrum thyrsoideum Gürke (1900: 293) ; Baker (1900: 516); De Wildeman (1905: 310; 1910a: 403; 1912b: 91); Durand & Durand (1909: 441); Thomas (1936: 73); Huber (1963: 444); Lebrun & Stork (1997: 513); Akoegninou et al. (2006: 985); Hawthorne & Jongkind (2006: 426); Lisowski (2009: 364); Lejoly et al. (2010: 295); César & Chatelain (2019: 731); Pollard (2022: 37).

Type:— D.R. CONGO. Bokakata , 6 February 1896, Dewèvre 812 (holotype: B?, not seen; iso-: BR0000008979322!) .

Sarmentose shrub or liana up to 8 m. Stem glabrous or puberulous, greyish to reddish, with pale lenticels; persistent petiole bases 2–15 mm. Leaves: petiole 0.5–3.0 cm, slender, glabrous, rarely pilose; lamina: elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 4–14 × 2–6 cm, base cuneate, apex acuminate, upper surface glossy, glabrous on both surfaces, 3–4 veins on either side, tertiary veins scalariform, prominent on both surfaces, lower surface gland-dotted, margin entire, recurved. Inflorescence terminal, a pyramidal thyrse, 6–40 × 6–13 cm, internodes 5–65 mm, cymules 2–15 flowered, 10–35 × 10–35 mm, lax, upwardly decreasing in size, peduncle 10–30 mm, perpendicular to rachis, in the axils of foliaceous bracts, branches greyish tomentellous. Flower: pedicel 5–20 mm, greyish tomentellous, bracts filiform 1–2 mm long; calyx 4–6 × 6–8 mm, whitish to glaucous green, glabrous to puberulent, gland-dotted, tube campanulate, 1.5–3 mm, limb spreading, lobes 2–3 × 2–3 mm, triangular; corolla yellowish, tube 7–11 mm, tomentellous, lobes 4–5 mm, reflexed, greyish tomentellous without; stamens exserted ca. 10 mm, greenish, anther ca. 1 mm long, blackish to ochraceous. Fruit subglobose, 7–9 × 7–8 mm, subtended by cupuliform calyx ca. 8 × 10 mm, striate.

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

Distribution elsewhere:— Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone.

Habitat:— Flooded forest , sphagnum bog, riparian forest; ca. 200–400 m.

Selection of representative specimens:— D.R. CONGO. Bas-Congo: Boko , July 1949, Callens 2094 (BR!) . Kasaï: Kisenge, Kwango-Sud, 24 July 1955, Devred 2327 (BR!), Entre Selenge et Lokolela, July 1925, Goossens 6010 (BR!). Forestier Central: Bogoy (territ. Boende), 4 January 1958, Evrard 3197 (BR!); Yandja, 1 January 1940, Germain 81 (BR!); Ile Mongayiolo (riv. Ruki), 9 September 1925, Robyns 494 (BR!, WAG).