Cordia fissistyla Vollesen

Darbyshire, Iain, Burrows, John E., Luke, Quentin & Langa, Clayton, 2022, Cladoceras rovumense sp. nov. (Gentianales-Rubiaceae), a new species from southeast Tanzania and northeast Mozambique, European Journal of Taxonomy 833, pp. 46-59 : 55-56

Cordia fissistyla Vollesen

Nordic Journal of Botany 1: 325 ( Vollesen 1981).

Type TANZANIA • Selous Game Reserve , 2 km NW of Kingupira; 8°28ʹ S, 38°33ʹ E; alt. 125 m; 9 May 1975; K. Vollesen in MRC 2283; holotype: C [ C10000406 ]; isotypes EA, K [ K000418662 ], WAG [ WAG0003807 ] .

Additional collection studied

MOZAMBIQUE • Nampula Prov., Monapo ; 14°59.023ʹ S, 40°31.516ʹ E; 18 Mar. 2009; E. Schmidt 4762; Herb. Ernst Schmidt .

Distribution and habitat

Restricted to the proposed Rovuma CoE, known from east-central Tanzania and from Monapo of northeast Mozambique. It occurs in areas of dense thicket including on termitaria, on edges of temporary water holes and edges of riverine thickets, on alkaline soils, at ca 40–125 m a.s.l. elevation.

Conservation status

This species is currently assessed on the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable – VU D2 – as it was previously known from a small range (Extent of Occurrence [EOO] = 366 km 2) and only 2–3 locations within the Selous Game Reserve of Tanzania, and there were some plausible future threats from expansion of camps within the reserve ( Beentje et al. 2020). Whilst large areas of the Selous Reserve remain intact, it was included by UNESCO (2021) as one of 52 World Heritage sites in danger, and its conservation outlook is listed as “critical” ( IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2020). This is due to a number of recent and ongoing developments within the reserve, including the proposed Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project at Stiegler’s Gorge on the Rufiji River, current and potential future mineral resource exploitation and high levels of poaching of megafauna which may have an impact on the whole Selous ecosystem ( IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2020). The new record from Mozambique extends the EOO of this species considerably, to ca 10 625 km 2, and adds one further location. The area around Monapo and Naguema to the east is heavily populated, with extensive conversion of thicket vegetation to farmland, hence the Mozambique location is considered to be experiencing an ongoing threat. With a continuing decline in extent and quality of habitat and with fewer than five locations known, this species is provisionally reassessed as Endangered under criterion B – EN B2ab(iii).

Taxonomic notes

The single Mozambique collection is from ca 700 km to the south of the nearest previously known records in Tanzania and is in flower bud only, but it is an excellent match for smaller-leaved specimens of C. fissistyla (e.g., K. Vollesen 4493, Kingupira) and this is a very distinctive species with no close affinity ( Verdcourt 1991).

Please note that, other than the type specimen, we only cite the newly seen Mozambique collection in the "Additional collection studied" section here and do not cite the other Tanzanian collections we have seen.