Anisophyllea strychnoides Engler & von Brehmer (1917: 373)

Chen, Xin, He, Hai & Zhang, Li-Bing, 2015, A monograph of the Anisophylleaceae (Cucurbitales) with description of 18 new species of Anisophyllea, Phytotaxa 229 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

66. Anisophyllea strychnoides Engler & von Brehmer (1917: 373) ( Figure 130 )

Type:— SIERRA LEONE. Western Area Rural: Sugarloaf and Sierra Leone hills, 04 December 1891, G. F . Scott-Elliot 4154 (lectotype K-75945!, here designated, isolectotype P-00374869!). Remaining syntype: Scott-Elliot G. F . 5365 ( K).

Trees to 10 m tall; young branches terete, tenuous, bark green, densely pannose with brownish hairs 0.12–0.50 mm long, adult shoots darkly grey, sub-glabrous; buds densely pannose. Leaves dimorphic, small ones nearly opposite to large ones, internodes between similar types of leaves 1.3–3.5 cm, between two adjacent different types of leaves 1–3 mm; small leaves caducous, sessile, lanceolate, 8–12 mm long, 2–5 mm wide, base obtuse, apex acuminate, sparsely pannose on both surfaces, main veins 5, obscure adaxially and slightly prominent abaxially; large leaves petiolate, petiole 3–5 mm long, 1.0– 1.2 mm in diam., pannose with brownish hairs or glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to broadly ovate, 9.5–12.5 cm long, 3–5 cm wide, base slightly oblique, acute to obtuse, apex narrowly acuminate, thinly coriaceous, sub-lustrous adaxially, sparsely pannose on both surfaces with indumentum denser along main veins when young, glabrescent when mature; main longitudinal veins 5, springing from blade base, two inner lateral veins merged with midrib above blade base at 1.5–4.5 mm in one side and 4–9 mm in another side respectively before separated, outermost two veins very fine, only 1–2 mm from blade margins at base and upward almost confluent with blade margins, impressed adaxially and raised abaxially; transverse veins parallel, at angles of 50–65° with midrib, obscure adaxially but distinctly prominent abaxially; veinlets reticulate. Inflorescence an axillary spike, rachis ascending, tenuous, to 9 cm long, 0.5 mm in diam., moderately tomentose or sparsely manicate with brownish tortuous hairs to 0.2 mm long, densely with flowers; bracts narrowly lanceolate, to 2 mm long, 0.25 mm wide, with widest point at middle, apex acute, glabrous adaxially, pannose abaxially; flower buds subglobose, to 1.5 mm long, 1 mm in diam., sparsely pannose with hairs denser at base; flowers bisexual(?), 4- merous, sessile; sepals broadly ovate, apex broadly acute, margins shortly ciliate, densely pubescent with short hairs abaxially; petals ovate, base entire, broad, irregularly 5 laciniate from middle or rarely lower, laciniae glabrous on both surfaces; stamens 8, free, inserted inside thick disk, filaments tenuous, base dilated, anthers small,

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CHEN ET AL.

sub-globose; styles 4, free, elongated, base clavately dilated, distally attenuate, sub-pubescent, stigma shortly thickened. Fruit a drupe, obovoid, ca. 3 cm long, 1.5 cm in diam., attenuate towards both ends, glabrous.

Flowering and fruiting: —Flowering in December and fruiting time unknown.

Habitat and distribution: —In bushland; below 1100 m. Guinea (Faranah); Sierra Leone (Western Area Rurul) ( Figure 131 ).

Taxonomic notes: — Anisophyllea strychnoides is similar to A. obtusifolia but can be distinguished from the latter by its sepals densely with short hairs on abaxial surface, its inflorescences without long hairs (up to 1 mm long) and its bracts much shorter (ca. 2 mm long vs. to 3.5 mm long in A. obtusifolia ) ( Engler & von Brehmer 1917, Engler 1921). It is also close to A. laurina , to which it had been considered conspecific (Hutchison & Dalziel 1954), but it differs from the latter by the transverse veins forming relatively smaller angles with the midrib, its

MONOGRAPH OF ANISOPHYLLEACEAE

Phytotaxa 229 (1) © 2015 Magnolia Press • 169 young branches without concurring pubescence of hairs to 0.8 mm long, and other much subtle morphological differences. However, the circumscriptions of these species need more investigations.

There were three collections (syntypes) cited in the protologue but we only found two of them. Here we designate one duplicate of Scott-Elliot 4154 deposited at K as the lectotype. The identity of Henriques 2 from Bolama in the Senegambisch-Westsudanische Zone, which would be in Guinea-Bissau, is uncertain and the distribution of this species there is not listed here .

Aditional specimens examined: — GUINEA. Faranah : East of Niger, 26 March 1891, Scott-Elliot G . F . 5365 ( K).

Figures

FIGURE 130. Anisophyllea strychnoides Engler & von Brehmer. Leafy branch (G. F. Scott-Elliot 4154; lectotype, K-000075945).

FIGURE 131. Geographical distribution of Anisophyllea strychnoides Engler & von Brehmer.