Entada schinziana (Dinter) S.A. O'Donnell & G.P. Lewis, 2022

O'Donnell, Shawn A., Ringelberg, Jens J. & Lewis, Gwilym P., 2022, Re-circumscription of the mimosoid genus Entada including new combinations for all species of the phylogenetically nested Elephantorrhiza (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae, mimosoid clade), PhytoKeys 205, pp. 99-145 : 99

Entada schinziana (Dinter) S.A. O'Donnell & G.P. Lewis comb. nov.

Type.

NAMIBIA. Grootfontein District , Otavi, Dinter 745 (lectotype: SAM [SAM0073418-0], designated by J.H. Ross in Fl. Southern Afr. 16(1): 148. 1975) .

Basionym.

Elephantorrhiza schinziana Dinter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 17: 190. 1921.

Description.

Branched shrub to 2.5 m tall. Leaves: petiole 2.2-3.5(-5.2) cm long; rachis (4.5-)7.5-14.5(-20.5) cm long; pinnae (2-)6-11(-14) pairs per leaf, 5.5-10(-14) cm long, with (14-)21-40 pairs of leaflets; leaflets (5-)7-14 × 1.5-3.5 mm, linear-oblong to oblong, apex rounded and sometimes mucronate, base oblique, mid-rib running from distal corner of leaflet base to apex centre, lamina glabrous, slightly glaucous. Inflorescence: an axillary spiciform raceme, 7-9.5 cm long, 1-2 per axil, rachis glabrous. Flowers: yellowish-white; pedicels 0.75 mm long, articulated towards the apex, with minute yellowish glands at the base; calyx cupular, 1.5 mm long, shallowly toothed, glabrous; petals 3-3.75 mm long; stamen filaments 5 mm long. Fruit: a laterally compressed, straight to slightly curved craspedium, (15-)19-30(-40.5) × 3-3.9 cm, transverse veins prominent, lacking transverse septa between seeds, thus leaving the valves to separate from the replum intact upon ripening, the epicarp of both valves peeling away from the endocarp; umbonate over seeds. Seeds: mature seeds not seen.

Distribution.

Namibia.

Habitat and ecology.

In savannah and woodlands.

Note.

Ross (1975a, p. 148) noted that the above description of the flowers of E. schinziana comes from the second sheet of Dinter 1689, which Ross regarded as of potentially ambiguous identity given that "one of the [other two] sheets of Dinter 1689 is a mixed gathering of a vegetative shoot of E. suffruticosa and a pod of E. schinziana ". The flowering specimen on the second sheet is leafless, thus preventing a more definitive identification. Ross conceded that "it is possible therefore that the flowers described are those of E. suffruticosa and not of E. schinziana ."