Phanera bassacensis (Pierre ex Gagnepain) de Wit (1956: 472)

Bandyopadhyay, Subir, 2014, The taxonomic identity of Bauhinia bassacensis var. nicobarica (Leguminosae: Caesalpinioideae), Phytotaxa 170 (3), pp. 219-220 : 219-220

Phanera bassacensis (Pierre ex Gagnepain) de Wit (1956: 472) .

Bauhinia bassacensis Pierre ex Gagnepain (1912: 168) .

Type:— Harmand 1540 (lectotype P, n.v.). Gagnepain (1912) in the protologue of B. bassacensis cited ‘ Laos: Attopeu, mars 1877, n° 1540 [Harmand]. Cochin-chine: Phu-quoc, janvier 1874, n° 1399 [Pierre]’ after the morphological description. de Wit (1956) cited Harmand 1540 at P as the lectotype. Whereas, Larsen & Larsen (1996) cited Harmand 1240 at P as the holotype but it was not cited in the protologue of B. bassacensis . I have seen a Harmand’s collection having the field number 1240 at P (00798474, image!) with the same locality and date of collection as given in the protologue. The other collections of Harmand 1240 at P (00798475 image!) and K (000760864 image!) have been collected from Attopeu in 2/77.

B. bassacensis Pierre ex Gagnep. var. nicobarica Tiwari et al. (2013: 13) , syn. nov.

Type :— INDIA. Andaman & Nicobar Islands : Great Nicobar Island, Campbell Bay, 20.2.2013, 16 m, K . Ravikumar, N. Balachandran & Umeshkumar Tiwari 115533 (holotype FRLH image!; isotypes FRLH image!, PBL) .

Prior to the publication of Tiwari et al. (2013) this species was known to occur in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Malay Peninsula ( Larsen & Larsen 1996). In var. bassacensis all the petals were known to be greenish yellow or two of them with purple blotch at tip whereas in var. backeri de Wit (1956: 473) to be greenish yellow with purple veins and two or all of them with purple blotch at tip. In the present collection of var. nicobarica, Tiwari et al. (2013) stated the petals to be creamish with purple-red veins. From the image of the flower given in the protologue the petals appear to me as light yellow with purple veins. There is no purple blotch at tip in any of the petals. Thus not much difference in the colour of the petals exists between the said varieties. The herbarium specimens of var. bassacensis can easily be separated from var. backeri by the length and pubescence of the filaments and colour of the flower buds ( Larsen & Larsen 1996). Larsen & Larsen (1996) recorded the filaments in the former variety to be 1.5–2 cm long and pubescent whereas in the latter variety the filaments were found to be 2.5–3.5 cm long and glabrous or sparsely hairy at base. Further the buds in the former variety are brownish pubescent whereas in the latter variety greyish pubescent.