Desmodium adscendens (Sw.) DC., Prodr.

Lima, Laura Cristina Pires, Queiroz, Luciano Paganucci De, Tozzi, Ana Maria Goulart De Azevedo & Lewis, Gwilym Peter, 2014, A Taxonomic Revision of Desmodium (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) in Brazil, Phytotaxa 169 (1), pp. 1-119 : 17-20

1. Desmodium adscendens (Sw.) DC., Prodr. 2: 332. 1825. Hedysarum adscendens Sw., Prodr. 106. 1788. Meibomia adscendens (Sw.) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 195. 1891. Lectotype (designated by Schubert 1980):— JAMAICA. O.P. Swartz s.n. (lectotype S!, isolectotype B-WILD13792!). Fig. 3 .

Hedysarum caespitosum Poir., Encycl. 6(2): 421. 1805. Desmodium caespitosum (Poir.) DC., Prodr. 2: 333. 1825. Type:—Ilede-France, 1805, P. Commerson s.n. (holotype P-JU!, isotypes G-DC!, FI-W!) .

Desmodium racemiferum DC., Prodr. 2: 331. 1825. Meibomia racemifera (DC.) Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 198. 1891. Lectotype (designated here):— GUADALUPE. C.G. Berteto s.n. (G-DC!). Remaining syntypes: French Guiana. Cayenne, G.S. Perrotet 22 (G-DC!), and 20 (G-DC!).

Desmodium obovatum Vogel, Linnaea 12: 106. 1838. Meibomia adscendens var. obovata (Vogel) Kuntze, Gen. Pl. 1: 195. 1891. Lectotype (designated here):— BRAZIL. Brasil meridional: rio Jau, F. Sellow s.n. (lectotype K000328092 !, isolectotypes E!, G!, K000205980 !, L!, LE![2 sheets], M!, W!).

Desmodium glaucescens Miq., Linnaea 17: 569. 1844. Type :— SURINAME. Zwarigheid: Oct, H. Focke 671 (holotype U!) .

Desmodium arinense Hoehne, Relat. Commiss. Linhas Telegr. Estratég. Matto Grosso Amazonas 5, Bot. pt. 8: 74. 1919. Lectotype (designated here):— BRAZIL. Mato Grosso: rio Arinos , J.G. Kulhmann 445 (lectotype R!, isolectotype RB!).

Desmodium adscendens f. glabrescens Schindl., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 21: 8. 1925. Lectotype (designated here):— CUBA. Monte Verde : C. Wright 126 (lectotype GOET!, isolectotypes BR!, G![3 sheets], K![2 sheets], LE!, P!, W!). Remaining syntypes: Cuba. Angabe: C. Wright 2314 (G!, GOET!, K!); Colombia. Santa Marta: H.H. Smith 2059 (BR!, E!, G![2 sheets], L!, LE!, P!, U!, W!); Venezuela. Caracas: J. Gollmer s.n. (B†), syn. nov.

Desmodium adscendens var. robustum B.G. Schub., Bull. Jard. Bot. Belg. 22: 290. 1952. Lectotype (designated by Schubert 1971):— CONGO. Democratic Republic of the Congo: J. Ghesquiére 4994 (lectotype BR![2 sheets], isolectotype K!), syn. nov.

Prostrate, ascendent or decumbent, branched subshrub, lacking stolons rooting at the nodes, without a xylopodium; stems virgate, slender, cylindrical, striate, sparsely or densely uncinate, puberulous-uncinate, tomentose or hirsute, not glaucous; internodes 0.2–2.1 cm long. Stipules 6–8 × 1.5–2 mm, lanceolate, not auriculate, semi-amplexicaul, inserted perpendicularly at the base of the leaf petiole, free from each other, apex caudate, margin ciliate, glabrescent, striate on the outer surface, veins conspicuous, persistent. Leaves trifoliolate; petiole 3–8 mm long,

DESMODIUM (LEGUMINOSAE, PAPILIONOIDEAE ) IN BRAZIL

Phytotaxa 169 (1) © 2014 Magnolia Press • 17 cylindrical, sulcate, sparsely tomentose and uncinate; rachis 2–6 mm long; stipels 1–2 mm long, subulate, margin ciliate, glabrescent on the outer surface, persistent; leaflets discolorous, membranaceous, venation brochidodromous, primary and secondary veins prominent, tertiary veins flush with the abaxial surface, indumentum densely tomentose, sericeous or hirsute on the primary, secondary and tertiary veins on the abaxial surface, adaxial surface puberulous, uncinate hairs covering both surfaces, terminal leaflet 0.5–3.2 × 0.6–1.7 cm, elliptic, broadly ovate, ovate or orbicular, base oblique or obtuse, apex acute, emarginate, subacute or obtuse, lateral leaflets 0.5–1.8 × 0.5–1.2 cm, the same shape as the terminal leaflet. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary pseudoraceme; the main axis longer than the adjacent leaves, 3.5–25 cm long, sparsely or densely puberulousuncinate and sericeous, 2 flowers per node; primary bract 4–5 mm long, ovate, margin ciliate, puberulous-uncinate on the outer surface, caducous, veins conspicuous on the outer surface; secondary bract 1–2 mm long, narrowly triangular, margin ciliate, puberulous-uncinate on the outer surface, caducous, veins inconspicuous on the outer surface; pedicel 5–8 mm long, sparsely puberulous-uncinate. Flowers 4–7 mm long; calyx bilabiate, tube campanulate, 1–1.5 mm long, puberulous-uncinate and hirsute on the outer surface; upper lip bifid, the 2 teeth joined for ca. ¾ of their length, acute, ca. 0.2 mm long; lower lip trifid, lateral tooth triangular, 1.5–2 mm long, central tooth triangular, 2–2.5 mm long; corolla lilac or purple, standard 4–7 × 2–7 mm, obovate or broadly obovate, apex obcordate, maculate at the base, claw 0.5–1 mm long; wing petals 4–7 × 1.5–3 mm, oblong, apex obtuse, without callosities, claw 0.5–1 mm long; keel petals 4–7 × 2 mm, narrowly obovate, apex obtuse, with callosities, claw 1.5–2 mm long; androecium diadelphous, 4–7 mm long, vexillary stamen free; ovary 4–4.8 mm long, villose, sessile. Loment 2.5–4.9 cm long, stipe ca. 0.5 mm long, uncinate, isthmus marginal, upper suture straight, lower suture sinuate; articles 2–5, uniform, 4–6 × 2.5–3 mm, oblong, not tortuous, indehiscent, membranaceous, veins inconspicuous, uncinate. Seed 3–3.5 × 2 mm, reniform, hilum central.

Selected specimens examined: — BRAZIL. Acre: Cruzeiro do Sul: Serra da Moa , perto da escola, 1 May 1971, fl., fr., P. J. M . Maas et al. 12684 ( K, M, MG, P) . Alagoas: Piranhas: Rua Porto da Folha , May, fl., R. A . Silva et al. 268 ( HUEFS) . Amapá: Macapá: ca. 63km do entroncamento da BR-156, 26 August 1988, fr., N. M. S . Costa et al. 2115 ( CEN). Amazonas: Manicoré: Margem direita do rio Manicoré , 20 September 1982, fl., fr., G. P . Silva et al. 334 ( CEN, HUEFS) . Bahia: Buerarema: BR-101, Itabuna - Eunápolis, Km 17, 16 July 1980, fl., L . Coradin et al. 2895 ( CEN, HUEFS, K) . Espírito Santo: Castelo: Forno Grande, 24 January 1973, fl., fr., s.c. s.n. ( RB 423887) . Goiás: Cavalcante: Margem direita do rio Macacão , 13 December 2000, fl., fr., G. P . Silva & J. B . Pereira 4513 ( CEN). Maranhão: Babacal: BR-135/316, Santa Inês Gurupi, 24 September 1979, fl., fr., L . Coradin et al. 2281 ( CEN, K) . Minas Gerais: Itabira: Cachoeira do Bongue , ca. 13 km Norte de Nossa Senhora do Carmo, distrito de Itabira, 23 November 2008, fl., fr., L. C. P . Lima & M. P . Andrade 533 ( HUEFS). Pará: Castanhal: Castanhal - Curuçá, 1100 m do trevo, 18 November 1988, fl., N. M. S . Costa et al. 2307 ( CEN) . Paraná: Matinhos: Praia Mansa, ao longo dos canteiros das calçadas ao longo da praia, 24 January 2008, fl., fr., V. J . Pott & A . Pott 9983 ( CGMS, HUEFS) . Rio de Janeiro: Campo Grande: Serra do Mendanha , s.d., fl., H. C . de Lima 314 ( HUEFS) . Rio Grande do Sul: Porto Alegre para Navegantes: March 1899, fl., fr., E. M . Reineck & J . Czermak 250 ( G, GOET, HBG, M, W, WU) . Roraima: Alto Alegre: Ilha de Maracá , Estação SEMA , em frente a estação, 17 June 1986, fl., fr., M. J. G . Hopkins et al. 785 ( INPA, K) . Santa Catarina: Garuva: Itapuã, 28 January 1989, fl., fr., J . Cordeiro & L. H . Meyer 615 ( BR, MBM) . São Paulo: São José dos Campos: rodovia São José dos Campos - Caraguatatuba (SP-99) Km 13 (a partir da rodovia Dutra), 24 August 1987, st, L . Coradin et al. 8226 ( CEN, HUEFS, K) .

Distribution and Ecology:— Africa, tropical Asia, Central and South America ( Schubert 1980, Vanni 2001, Lima et al. 2010). Occurs in almost all Brazilian States, with no particular habitat preference.

Conservation Assessment:— LC (Least Concern), not endangered ( IUCN 2001).

Phenology:— flowering and fruiting throughout the year.

Etymology:— from the Latin adscendens (= ascending), probably in reference to the ascendent habit.

Common Name:— amor-de-brejo; amor-de-velho; amores-do-campo; amor-rasteiro; carrapicho; carrapichobarba-de-boi; carrapicho-beiço-de-boi; carrapicho-rasteiro; manduvarana; pega-pega; trevinho.

Taxonomic notes:— an ascending prostrate habit, lanceolate stipules, pseudoracemose inflorescences, flowers 5–7 mm long, a sessile gynoecium, and fruit with 2–5 oblong articles are characters that facilitate recognition of D. adscendens . Leaflet shape is quite variable, as presented in Fig. 3A . Sterile specimens with small obovate leaflets (0.5–0.8 cm long) resemble D. triflorum , whereas specimens with larger elliptic leaflets (> 1.2 cm long) can be confused with D. affine or D. incanum . However, D. adscendens can be distinguished by lanceolate stipules (vs. ovate stipules in D. triflorum ), which are free (vs. partially fused and ovate in D. incanum ), and leaflets with brochidodromous venation (vs. craspedodromous venation in D. affine ).

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Most specimens collected from southern and southeastern Brazil are characterized by obovate or orbicular leaflets 0.5–1.0 cm in length, whereas specimens from northern and northeastern Brazil generally exhibit elliptic leaflets that are more than 1 cm long throughout the plant. However, these characteristics were not constant across all of the specimens observed. Schubert (1952) proposed Desmodium adscendens var. robustum based on its subcoriaceous leaflets, hirsute inflorescence axis, and densely hirsute, uncinate primary bracts, these morphological characters shared with some specimens analysed from northern and northeastern Brazil. However, other specimens examined from these regions exhibit characteristics seen on the type variety, var. adscendens , demonstrating that the minor character differences are not correlated with geography. Because of this, we place var. robustum in synonymy and recognise no infraspecific taxa within D. adscendens .

Two specimens on the same sheet of Hedysarum caespitosum were found in the FI herbarium (FI–W0489723). Only the specimen with the label data: “ Hedysarum caespitosum Poiret, Ile –de– France ” is considered as an isotype of this species. The other specimen with labels: “herb. Webbianum, ex. Desfontaines” and “Saint Thomas” was disregarded as an isotype because the label data do not agree with the protologue of Hedysarum caespitosum .

There is a mixture of taxa on Smith 2059 (in the herbaria E, G, and P), a syntype of Desmodium adscendens f. glabrescens ,. The Smith collection also includes elements of D. affine (herbaria: E, G–0070343, P–0070). This confirms the findings of Schindler (1914), who recognised the material from the Gherbarium as D. affine .

Bentham (1859) synonymised D. racemiferum , D. caespitosum , and D. obovatum with D. adscendens . Schindler (1928) synonymised D. glaucescens and D. arinense with D. adscendens , which is accepted in this work. On the other hand, Schubert (1980) cited Desmodium adscendens var. coeruleum (Lindl.) DC. as a synonym of D.adscendens , a concept which is not accepted in this work due to the observed differences in the length of flowers (9–12 mm long in D. adscendens var. coeruleum vs. 4–7 mm long in D. adscendens ) and the shape of stipules (triangular in D. adscendens var. coeruleum vs. lanceolate in D. adscendens ) between the variety and the specimens of D. adscendens from Brazil.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Desmodium adscendens. A. Fruiting branch. B. Stipules inner surface. C. Calyx inner surface (opened). D. Parts of the corolla from the bottom to top: keel petals, wing petals, and standard. E.Androecium diadelphous (opened). F. Gynoecium. G. Fruit. H. Seed. (A–H: Costa 119).