Flemingia fluminalis Clarke ex Prain (1897: 438)

Do, Truong Van, Xu, Bo & Gao, Xin-Fen, 2018, New synonyms, lectotypifications and taxonomical notes on the genus Flemingia (Phaseoleae, Papilionoideae, Leguminosae) from Thai-Indochinese floristic region, Phytotaxa 351 (1), pp. 41-52 : 42

Flemingia fluminalis Clarke ex Prain (1897: 438) . Lectotype (designated by Nguyen 1979):— MYANMAR. Kachin:

Hukaung valley, Griffithi 1675 (lectotype K, isolectotype P-00709080!)

Flemingia cavaleriei ( H. Lév.) Lauener (1970: 244) . Lectotype (designated here):— CHINA. Guizhou: Pienyang-Lofou route, November 1905, P.J. Cavalerie 2579 (E-00157784!) syn. nov.

Basionym: Geissaspis cavaleriei H. Lév. (1913: 533) .

Note: —When Prain (1897) described this species, he cited five gatherings, e.i. Clarke 19777, Lister 117, Griffith 1675, Kurz 2525, and King’s collector s.n., without designating the holotype. Later, Nguyen (1979) selected Griffith ’s collection, Griffith 1675 at K (not seen) and P (P-00709080) made from Hukaung valley, Myanmar as the lectotype of the species ( Figure 1 ). Therefore, a recently additional designation of the specimen Clarke 19777C (CAL-0000012301) by Gavade et al. (2016) as the lectotype of F. fluminalis is superfluous due to a valid lectotype.

From a view of the morphological characters, F. fluminalis is most similar to F. chappar Buchanan-Hamilton ex Bentham (1852: 244) and F. strobilifera (Linnaeus) Aiton (1812: 350) by sharing a thyrse inflorescence with flowers enclosed by large folded bracts, but it clearly differs from these two species by the diagnostic characters of leaves (a lanceolate leaflet blade with very short petiole vs. orbicular-cordate with much longer petiole). Nguyen (1979) considered F. fluminalis was insufficient distinct as a separate species and regarded it as a new variety, F. strobilifera var. fluminalis (Clarke ex Prain) Nguyen Van Thuan (1979: 143) . This treatment was lately adopted by Van der Measen et al. (1985), but not supported by Wei (1991), Sa & Gilbert (2010), and Gavade et al. (2016). Indeed, it may be easily distinguished from F. strobilifera by having a narrowly oblong to lanceolate leaflet blade with a very short or sessile petiole and acute at base (vs. an ovate to broadly elliptic leaflet blade with a much longer petiole and rounded or slightly cordate at base) and inflorescence not branched (vs. sometime branched). Hence, we here accept F. fluminalis as a separate species.

Léveillé (1913) originally described Geissaspis cavaleriei on the basis of two specimens collected by P.J. Cavalerie (P.J. Cavalerie 2579 & 2269) from Guizhou, China, but the author did not indicate the holotype of the species. Later, Lauener (1970) transfered it to the genus Flemingia without designating the lectotype as well. Therefore, a designation of the lectotype is necessary here. Notably, this species was not mentioned in the recent treatments of the genus Flemingia for the Indo-Chinese floristic region ( Nguyen 1979, Wei 1991, Sa & Gilbert 2010). A search of these two specimens at relevant herbaria revealed that P.J. Cavalerie 2622 at E (E-00157786) (not “2269” as Léveillé (1913) and Lauener (1970)) has digitately 3-foliolate leaves and a long petiole, which do not match with the protologue. Whilst P.J. Cavalerie 2579 at E (E-00157784) possesses simple leaves with a lanceolate leaf blade and very short petiole, and flowers enclosed by large bracts, which matches very well with the protologue, and selected here as the lectotype of the species ( Figure 2 ). Furthermore, these diagnostics characters are mostly identical to those of F. fluminalis that previously described by Clarke (1897) from Myanmar and distributes throughout the Indo-Chinese region. Therefore, F. cavaleriei is proposed here as a new synonym of the latter.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Isolectotype of Flemingia fluminalis (P-00709080).

FIGURE 2. Lectotype of Flemingia cavaleriei (E-00157784).