Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Bentham (1848: 156)

YAO, GANG, DENG, YUN-FEI & GE, XUE-JUN, 2015, A Taxonomic Revision Of Pogostemon (Lamiaceae) From China, Phytotaxa 200 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

2. Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Bentham (1848: 156) . Mentha cablin Blanco (1837: 473) . Neotype (here designated): — PHILIPPINES. Luzon, Antipolo, Rizal Province, November 1914, E.D. Merrill Species Blancoanae 112 ( US!, isoneotypes BM!, K!, NY!, P!). Figure 1 G .

Pogostemon patchouly Pelletier (1845: 277) . P. heyneanus var. patchouli (Pellet.) Kuntze (1891: 529) . Type:— INDIA. “In hortis culitur ex India oriental.” (ORM?, not traced).

8 • Phytotaxa 200 (1) © 2015 Magnolia Press

DENG & GE

Pogostemon suavis Tenore (1847: 56) . P. patchouli var. suavis (Ten.) Hooker (1885: 634). Type:— CHINA. “Floret martio in calidario, habitat China?” (FI?, not traced).

Pogostemon javanicus Backer ex Adelbert (1954: 150) . Type:— INDONESIA. East Java: Besuki, Banjuwangi, no date, H. Zollinger 4651 (holotype BO, isotype L!).

Perennial subshrubs, to 1.5 m tall, aromatic. Stems erect, terete, branched, tomentose. Leaves opposite; petiole 1–7 cm long, tomentose; blade circular to broadly ovate, 4–11 × 2.5–9 cm, herbaceous, adaxially dark green, tomentose, abaxially tomentose, base cuneat-attenuate, margin double serrate or irregular serrate, apex obtuse to acute, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs on each side of the midvein. Spikes 3–6.5 × 1.3–1.8 cm, terminal and axillary, continuous, densely tomentose, with more than two lateral branches; peduncle, 1–2 cm long, desenly tomentose; verticillasters several–16-flowered, flowers sessile. Bracts and bracteoles ovate to narrowly lanceolate, 4–8 × 1–3 mm, margin entire, rarely serrate, abaxially densely tomentose and glandular, adaxially pubescent. Calyx tubular, 6–8 mm long, 5-veinded, densely tomentose outside, minutely tomentose inside; teeth 5, narrowly triangular, 1.2–2 mm long, sparsely tomentose inside. Corolla white or purplish, 7–9 mm long, exserted, 2-lipped, upper lip 3-lobed, lower lip entire, lips sparsely pubescent outside. Stamens 4, erect, exserted; filaments 5–7 mm long, inserted at middle or slightly upper of middle in the tube, bearded at middle, bearded portions exserted; anther 1-locular, cell apex dehiscent. Style 7.5–8 mm long, stigma bilobed, equal, lobes 2.5–3 mm long. Nutlets 4, ca. 0.8 × 0.6 mm, ellipsoid to ellipsoid-oblong, reticulate-foveate.

Distribution:— This species is usually known as cultivated in tropical Asia, such as in south China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The origin is uncertain. Merrill (1912) stated that the species was unquestionally introduced into Phillippines, but he did not mention where the species is native.

Phenology:— Occasionally flowering from March to May. Young plants of this species are obtained through asexual propagation.

Uses:— It is the source of patchouli oil extracted from its leaves and stems, which is widely used in medicine and perfume industry.

Taxonomic notes:— Pogostemon cablin differs from all other Chinese Pogostemon species by its large flowers, although it flowers seldomly.

Mentha cablin was presumably based on a Blanco specimen from Philippines, but no specimen has been recorded, even though a few Blanco specimens are said to be extant in MA ( Stafleu & Cowan 1976, Smith &

POGOSTEMON ( LAMIACEAE )

Phytotaxa 200 (1) © 2015 Magnolia Press • 9 Darwin 1991). Merrill (1918) published his major commentary on all of Blanco’s species and cited what he called an “illustrative specimen” for each of Blanco’s names with few exceptions. Merrill’s specimens are recognized as the neotype for Blanco’s names by many authors. However, Merrill’s specimens are deposited in many herbaria, and the selection of one specimen as neotype is necessary under Article 9.7 of the ICN ( McNeill et al. 2012). Here we choose Merrill Species Blancoanae 112, an “illustrative specimen” in US, as the neotype as Nicolson & Arculus (2001) suggested.

This species was known as “Patchouli” ( Pelletier 1845, Tenore 1847, Hooker 1849, Anonymous 1888, 1889, 1908) and described as Pogostemon patchouli ( Pelletier 1845: 277) and P. suavis Tenore (1847: 56) . Many authors discussed the reduction of these two names. We could not trace the types of these two names.

Figures

FIGURE 1. A–I. Pogostemon species. A. P. linearis; B. P. sampsonii; C. P. yatabeanus; D. P. auricularius; E. P. barbatus; F. P. brachystachyus; G. P. cablin; H. P. parviflorus; I. P. septentrionalis (Photoed by Gang Yao).