Phoebe cathia (D.Don) Kostermans (1975: 44)

Chakrabarty, Tapas, Kumar, Anand & Ghoshal, Partha Pratim, 2023, A revision of the genus Phoebe (Lauraceae) in the Indo-Burmese region, Phytotaxa 606 (1), pp. 29-42 : 34-35

4. Phoebe cathia (D.Don) Kostermans (1975: 44) . Fig. 1A

Type :— NEPAL. Suembu [Swayambhu], 1 June 1802, fl., F. Buchanan-Hamilton s.n. (lectotype designated here: BM000888338, digital image!; isolectotype: LINN-HS707-42, digital image!) .

Basionym:— Cinnamomum cathia Don (1825: 66) .

Homotypic synonyms:— Persea cathia (D.Don) Sprengel (1827: 156) .

Phoebe cathia (D.Don) Gandhi (1976: 50) , nom. illegit.

Heterotypic synonyms:— Phoebe paniculata (Nees) Nees von Esenbeck (1836: 105) .

Type:— NEPAL. Without locality, 1821, fr., Wallich, Numer. List No. 2598A (lectotype designated here: K001116529, digital image!; isolectotypes: CGE [3 sheets] n.v., E00393292, E00393293, G-DC [G00693531, G00693532], K001116531, K000228474, K000228475, K000228476, LE00012764, digital images!) .

Basionym:— Ocotea paniculata Nees von Esenbeck (1831: 71) .

Ocotea paniculata var. minor Nees von Esenbeck (1831: 71) , syn. nov.

Type:— INDIA. Without locality, s.d., fr., R. Wight in Wallich, Numer. List No. 2598B (lectotype designated here: K001116530, image!) .

Phoebe pubescens (Nees) Nees von Esenbeck (1836: 107) .

Type:— NEPAL.Without locality, s.d., fl., Wallich, Numer. List No. 2595 (lectotype designated here: K000228472, digital image!). NEPAL. Without locality, s.d., fl., Wallich, Numer. List No. 2595 (additional syntypes: B 10 027500, B 10 0275001, digital images!, BO herb. acc.no. 1279165 n.v., E00393294, E00393295, G-DC [G00693533], K000228471—right hand side specimen, K000228473, L.1813846, L.1813846, MEL2390405, S-G-3578, digital images!) .

Basionym:— Ocotea pubescens Nees von Esenbeck (1831: 71) .

Phoebe paniculata var. pubescens (Nees) Meisner (1864: 38) .

Phoebe wightii Meisner (1864: 38) , syn. nov.

Type:— INDIA. Tamil Nadu, Nilgiri hills, 1859, fl., G.S. Perrottet 1005 (lectotype designated here: G-DC [G00693563, mounted on three sheets], digital images!; isolectotypes: P02008938, P02008939, digital images!) . INDIA. Tamil Nadu, Nilgiri hills, 1854, fl., Metz [in Pl. Hohenacker] 1337 (additional syntypes: AWH n.v., BO herb. acc. no. 1281331 n.v., L.1812324, P 02132232, P02008935, P02008936, P02008937, U.1417552, digital images!) . INDIA. Peninsula Indiae Orientalis, s.d., fl., R. Wight, Kew Distrib. No. 2523 (additional syntypes: BO herb. acc. no. 1279181 n.v., CAL0000033375!, L.1812323, M0147186, MEL2390411, P 02132233, S-G-4811, digital images!) .

Phoebe prazeri Gangopadhyay (2006: 150) , syn. nov.

Type :— MYANMAR. Lockhoe and Sebong hills, Tummoo hills, 6 July 1890, fl. & immat. fr., J.C. Prazer 138 (holotype: CAL0000021975!; isotypes: CAL0000021976!, CAL0000021977!) .

Phoebe pallida subsp. borii Gangopadhyay et al. (2020: 449) , syn. nov.

Type:— INDIA. Assam, Lakhimpur dist., Mukum , March 1937, fl., N.L. Bor 16578 (holotype: ASSAM, digital image!) .

Trees, 4–15 m high; GBH 15–50 cm; bud scale scars in diffuse clusters along twigs; young shoots yellow to tawny tomentose or rusty villous; branchlets tawny or rusty tomentellous to villous when young, glabrescent. Leaves evenly spaced along twigs and often crowded towards apices of branchlets, elliptic or broadly so to obovate or narrowly oblong-elliptic, 6–22 × 2–8 cm, cuneate to acute or sometimes subacute at base, often curved upwards along margins, apiculate to acuminate (acumen 5–15 mm long, acute, often slender) or occasionally obtuse to rounded at apex, thinly coriaceous to chartaceous, glabrous above, yellow, tawny or greyish tomentellous (especially on veins) beneath, green, brown, blackish or dark reddish brown above when dry, pale green, brown or coppery and sometimes glaucescent beneath; lateral veins 5–10 pairs, prominent above, raised beneath; tertiary veins faint to obscure above, faint to prominent beneath, scalariform to laxly reticulate; veinlets faint to obscure above, inconspicuous to prominent beneath; petioles 5–20 mm long, pubescent to glabrous. Panicles 3–17 cm long, 2–5-branched, 5–many-flowered; axis and branches yellow, greyish, tawny or rusty tomentellous. Flowers: pedicels 2.5–4 mm long, scattered greyish, fulvous or tawny puberulous to tomentellous; tepals ovate, 2.5–4 × 1.3–2 mm, greyish or fulvous puberulous to tomentellous outside, tomentellous inside; stamens 2.5–3.5 mm long; staminodes ca. 1.5 mm long; ovary subglobose, ca. 1.2 mm in diam.; style 1.8–2 mm long; stigma simple. Fruits ovoid, 0.9–1.2 × 0.6–1 cm; fruiting pedicels 3–5 mm long, slightly thickened; fruiting tepals 3.5–4 mm long.

Phenology: —Flowering in January to November and fruiting in February to December.

Habitat: — Common in peninsular India in wet evergreen and shola forests between 500–2100 m elevations; scarce on the Himalayas in evergreen and warm broad-leaved forests at 1200–1900 m elevations; in evergreen hill forests in Myanmar up to 1200 m elevation.

Distribution: — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Specimens examined:— BHUTAN. Near Zimgang, Shongarchu near Mongar, 15 June 1979, fl., A.J.C. Grierson & D.G. Long 1966 (E00168491) . INDIA. Peninsula Indiae Orientalis , s.d., R. Wight 2236 (E00393277 [fr.], E00393278 [fr.], E00393279 [fr.], E00393280 [fr.], E00393282 [fl.], E00393283 [fr.], E01104186 [fr.]) . Andhra Pradesh: Visakhapatnam dist., Sunkarimetha , 19 September 1961, fr., N.P. Balakrishnan 688 (CAL [2 sheets]) . Karnataka: Chikmagalur dist., Bababudan, Santaveri , November 1908, fl., Meebold 10463 (E01104188) . Hassan dist., Bamalla , 5 February1970, fr., C.J. Saldanha 16213 ( JCB) . Kerala: Palghat dist., Thekkadi to Devicolam , 16 June 1976, fl., Kostermans 26106 (L.1812340) . Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore dist., Waterfalls estate - Attakatti , 5 July 1961, fl., J. Joseph 12701 ( MH) . Dindigul dist., Kardana estate, 28 November 1988, fr., V. Lakshmanan 89108 (BSID0012352); Way to Avalanche, 9 March 1969, fl., D.B. Deb 31548 ( MH); Shola near view point, Kodanad, 6 June 1971, fl., E. Vajravelu 38285 ( MH) . Kaveri road, 19 January 1957, fl., K.M. Sebastine 2041 (CAL, MH); Ooty, June 1886, fl., Gamble 17384 ( CAL); Kolli hills, Pongakoilshola, 14 April 1977, fl., D.I. Arockiasamy 7585 ( RHT) . LAOS, Khammouan, vicinity of Ban Mak Phueang , 12 February 2005, fl., M.F. Newman et al. 124 (P02008742) . MYANMAR. Mogok , May 1910, fl., A. Rodger 317 (CAL [4 sheets]); ibid., A. Rodger 337 (CAL [3 sheets]) . NEPAL. Without locality, 16 June 1967, H. Hara et al. s.n. (BM000888311 n.v.) . THAILAND. Chiang Mai province, Mae Rim, Mae Sa Mai village, Bong Yaeng subdistrict, 3 March 2004, fl., J.F. Maxwell 94-125 (L.3906124) . VIETNAM. Kontum province, Dak Mek river to Long Nam village , 17 March 1995, fr., L.V. Averyanov VH832 (P02009089) .

Notes: — Hooker (1886) treated Phoebe wightii as a synonym of P. paniculata (a synonym of P. cathia ) and cited wide distribution of the species from Myanmar and Nepal to the Nilgiri hills. However, Gamble (1925) recognized them as distinct species based on several differences. Typical Phoebe wightii would indeed appear to represent a distinct species, apparently differing from P. cathia by the dense tomentum on the petioles and undersurface of the leaves, and the shorter inflorescences with fewer branches bearing fewer flowers. However, examination of wider range of specimens revealed that the two species are clearly connected to each other through intergradations and it is not possible to maintain them as distinct species.

Cinnamomum cathia Don (1825: 66) was described based on the collection of Francis Buchanan-Hamilton from Nepal. According to Stafleu & Cowan (1976: 668), the types of the name published in Prodromus Florae Nepalensis are deposited at BM and duplicates at the Smith herbarium of LINN. There are two specimens at BM and LINN and these should be considered as syntypes under Art. 9.6 Ex. 5 ( Turland et al. 2018, see also McNeill 2014). The well preserved specimen at BM is designated here as lectotype.

As regards the type of Phoebe wightii , in addition to the collection of Perrottet, there are two more sheets at G-DC (barcodes G00693564 and G00693565) bearing annotations by Meisner in one and drawing of anthers on the other but unfortunately the names of the collectors of these specimens are not discernible. Out of several duplicates available for lectotype selection of Ocotea paniculata , a good fruiting specimen K001116529 is chosen here. A profusely flowering specimen K000228472 is selected as lectotype of Ocotea pubescens . As the collection of Wallich 2595 is a mixture of three species, the additional materials have been cited as syntypes rather than isolectotypes. Phoebe prazeri was described based on a material with immature fruits, matching well with P. cathia . Mention of the habit as “climber” is possibly incorrect. Gangopadhyay et al. (2020) were possibly confused with the identity of P. pallida subsp. borii because the holotype bears Gangopadhyay’s determination as P. cathia . Examination of the holotype revealed that the same belongs here.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Field images of Phoebe species. A. P. cathia; B. P. lanceolata.