Crotalaria priestleyoides Benth. ex Beddome (1865: 214)

Jabeena, Manjakulam Khadhersha, Prabhukumar, Konickal Mambetta, Maya, Chandrashekaran Nair, Sunil, Chandrasseril Narayanan & Balachandran, Indira, 2023, Revisiting the taxonomy of Crotalaria priestleyoides (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae), an endemic legume of Western Ghats, Phytotaxa 594 (2), pp. 153-157 : 155-156

Crotalaria priestleyoides Benth. ex Beddome (1865: 214) .

Figure 1 .

Type (neotype, here designated):— INDIA, Hab. Concan & C., Herb Stocks s.n. ( K000591060 ). Isoneotypes: P02750837 , P02750839 , P02750840 , L1986583 , M0219498 , CAL 103418 (digital images!) . Figure 2

Description:— A much branched trailing herb, up to 35 cm long, covered with brown silky hairs. Stem prostrate, terete, slender, densely hairy. Leaves membranous, simple, alternate, sub-sessile, 0.6–2 × 0.4–0.9 cm, elliptic or obovate, base acute, margin entire, apex round, mucronate, sparsely hairy above, densely hairy below; midrib impressed above and raised below; lateral nerves 4–5 pairs, indistinct. Stipules absent. Inflorescence terminal, 4–8 flowered raceme with a short peduncle which looks like a capitulum; peduncle 1–2(–6) mm long, hairy. Flowers pedicellate, bracteate; pedicel 3–4 mm long, hairy. Bracts 2, equal, 1.3–1.5 × 0.2–0.4 cm, lanceolate, acuminate at apex, hairy outside, glabrous inside, persistent; bracteoles 2, similar to bracts, 0.9–1 cm long. Calyx bilipped, 5-lobed, lobes unequal, free near to the base, 1.5–1.7 × 0.3–0.4 cm, hairy outside, glabrous inside; upper lip 2-lobed, lanceolate, apex acute; lower lip 3-lobed, linear, acuminate at apex. Corolla as long as the calyx, yellow; standard 0.9–1.2 × 0.9–1.0 cm, obovate, glabrous except few hairs on the back; wing petals 0.7–0.9 × 0.2–0.3 cm, oblong, glabrous, keel 0.9–1.0 × 0.5 cm, beak of keel spirally twisted. Staminal sheath 0.6 cm long; filament glabrous; anthers dimorphic (5+5), 5 large, linear, ca. 1.5 mm, 5 small, globose, ca. 0.25 mm in diameter. Ovary 2.5 mm long, ovoid, glabrous; style ca. 6 mm long, hairy towards the apex; stigma blunt. Pods sessile, included in the calyx, 12–14 × 6–7 mm, oblong, tip hooked, blackish brown, glabrous. Seeds 12–15, reniform, ca. 2.5 × 2.5 mm, brown, smooth, polished.

Phenology:— October to December.

Habitat:— The species is found among exposed grasslands above at an altitude of 1300 m along with other legumes such as Crotalaria nana Burm.f. (1768: 48) , C. multiflora Benth. (1843: 478) and Flemingia strobilifera ( Linnaeus 1753: 746) W.T. Aiton (1812: 350) etc.

Distribution:— The plant is native and endemic to the Western Ghats with distribution in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Specimens examined:— INDIA. Karnataka: Kulhutty, Bababudan hills, 6000 ft., October 1908, A. Meebold 9581 ( CAL) . T amil Nadu: Nilgiri, Coimbatore district, Bellaji , 5000 ft., 17 November 1906, C.E.C. Fischer 1301 ( DD) ; Doddabetta , 5000 ft., 29 November 1906, C.E.C. Fischer 1295 (CAL) ; Kerala: Travancore, Kumili, 4000 ft., December 1910, A. Meebold 869 ( DD13062 ) . Palakkad district, Nelliyampathy hills , Hill top, 17 August 2014, K.M. Prabhukumar 8736 ( CMPR) ; Palakkad district, Nelliyampathy hills , Hill top, 20 January 2018, Jabeena M. K. & Maya C. Nair 1110 ( GVCH) ; 01 February 2020, Jabeena M. K. & Maya C. Nair 3988 ( GVCH) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Crotalaria priestleyoides Benth. ex Beddome A. Habit; B. Inflorescence; C. Bracteole; D. Upper Calyx; E. Lower Calyx; F. L.S. of flower; G. Standard petal adaxial surface; H. Standard petal abaxial surface; I. Wing petals; J. Keel petals; K. Dimorphic anthers; L. Staminal tube with gynoecium; M. Gynoecium; N. C.S. of ovary (Photos: KM Prabhukumar & MK Jabeena).

FIGURE 2. Neotype of Crotalaria priestleyoides (K000591060). © The Board of Trustees of the Kew Herbaria (Reproduced with permission).