Gymnosporia bailadillana Narayanswami & Mooney (1941: 191)

Singh, Rajeev Kumar, Garg, Arti & Singh, Paramjit, 2015, Taxonomy, lectotypification and rediscovery of Gymnosporia bailadillana (Celastraceae), a little known, critically endangered taxa of Chhattisgarh state, India, Phytotaxa 226 (2), pp. 101-118 : 102-103

Gymnosporia bailadillana Narayanswami & Mooney (1941: 191)

Type: — INDIA. Bailadilla Hill, Bastar state (now in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state), moist valley, 3000–3300 ft., February 1939, H. Mooney 890 (CAL-0000007442!, here designated; isolectotypes CAL-0000007440!, CAL-0000007451!, CAL-0000007452!) .

Paratypes: — INDIA. Bailadilla Hill , Bastar state, dark glen, 3000–3300 ft., February 1939, H. Mooney 900 (CAL-0000007434!, CAL-0000007435!, CAL-0000007436!, CAL-0000007437!, CAL-0000007438!, 0000007439!, CAL-0000007441!,) ; Bailadilla Hill , Bastar, in dark shady damp ravine, 3500 ft., February 1939, H. Mooney 390 (CAL-0000007450!) .

Large shrubs, 5–7 m high; branches with few axillary thorns, striate, irregularly angled near tips, glabrous or indistinctly canescent, sometimes with white lenticles; thorns 3–12 mm long, slender, straight. Leaves simple, alternate, ellipticovate, 3–10 × 1.5–5.5 cm, acute at apex, cuneate at base, margins glandular crenulate, glaucous and shining above, dark green and glabrous below; midrib whitish, turning brown later; lateral nerves 5–15; petioles 3–8 mm long, whitish, turning brown later. Inflorescence simple or dichotomous cymes, from axils of leafy or leafless branchlets; peduncles 3–8 mm long; flowers usually in fascicles of two-three, rarely in 1 or 4; bracts and bracteoles 0.5–1 mm long, reddish brown, ovate, minutely fimbriate at margins; pedicel clavate, 5–8 mm long; bud 3 mm long, oblong-globose. Sepals 5, imbricate, 0.6–1 mm long, ovate, ciliate at margins. Petals 5, 2.6–3.2 mm long, imbricate, oblong, tip crenulateserrulate, white, inserted below the reddish pink disk. Stamens 5, inserted below the reddish pink disk, alternate to petals; filaments 2–2.3 mm long; anther ovate, 0.7–0.9 mm long, basifixed; disk 5–lobed. Ovary 3–loculed, sunk in the fleshy disc, 2 ovules in each locule; style 3–lobed; lobes bifid; stigma simple, 0.4–0.5 mm long. Capsules 3–lobed, obtriangular, 6–8 × 9–11 mm, transversely striate, cuneate below, dehiscing loculicidally; seeds 2 in each locule, ovoid, shining, arillate; aril completely covering young seed, splitting irregularly when mature.

Etymology:— Bailadillana , of Bailadilla Hill, referring to the type locality.

Phenology: —Flowering in January to early March; fruiting in late March to May.

Habitat: —Hilly forest in dark glens, shady ravines, moist valleys and near waterfalls, between 600–1200 m elevations.

Distribution: — Chhattisgarh (Dantewada district and Koriya district) and Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam district). At present no individual is extant in the Dantewada and Visakhapatnam districts, except at Koriya district of Chhattisgarh state.

Specimens examined: — India, Madras, Nilavaram Padu, Vizagapattam (now in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh), 3500 ft., 22.2.1947, V. Narayanswami & Party 545-546 ( A & B) ( CAL) ; India, Chhattisgarh state, Koriya district, Amritdhara Sacred Grove , near water fall, 23° 17’ 28.5’’ N & 82° 19’ 45.8’’ E, 610 m, 28.2.2014, R. Kr. Singh 72862 A-E ( BSA) .

IUCN threat status: —Based on assessment and field observations from 2010 to 2014, G. bailadillana is currently categorized as Critically Endangered [B2a b (i,ii,iii,iv) c (i,ii,iii); C2a (i,ii) b; D].

Notes: —When Gymnosporia bailadillana Narayanswami & Mooney (1941: 191) was published, a single gathering ‘H. Mooney No. 890 from Bailadilla Hill, Bastar state (Orissa) (in the Calcutta Herbarium)’ was cited as type in the protologue but no specific herbarium sheet was designated as holotype. This gathering consists of four herbarium sheets at CAL (CAL-0000007440!, CAL-0000007442!, CAL-0000007451!, CAL-0000007452!). The best one, CAL-0000007442, is chosen here as the lectotype because the illustration in the protologue is based on this specimen and it agrees well with the protologue. The other two collections of Mooney, H. Mooney 390 (CAL-0000007450) and H. Mooney 900 (CAL-0000007434 to 0000007439 & CAL-0000007441) mentioned in the protologue (other than the type gathering) are thus paratypes.