MALVACEAE
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/10.17348/jbrit.v15.i1.1049 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/B751879D-3E41-BA74-FDF9-FB1A4C2D160B |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
MALVACEAE |
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Waltheria indica View in CoL L. is a pantropical weed with a lectotype with provenance from Sri Lanka. Across its distribution, the species is closely related to and possibly interfertile with several local taxa, making delineation of taxa difficult (Saunders 1995, 2011, 2015). This pattern holds true in Florida, where W. bahamensis Britton View in CoL is quite distinct from W.indica View in CoL except that a few specimens suggest they may hybridize. For a long while, W.indica View in CoL was considered the only species in Florida (Chapman 1860; Rose 1899; Whetstone 1983; Wunderlin & Hansen 2011) and W. bahamensis View in CoL was treated as an endemic of the Bahamas (Britton & Millspaugh 1920; Freid et al. 2014), until a revision of the genus determined W. bahamensis View in CoL was applicable to the Florida flora (Saunders 1995, 2015).
The type of W. bahamensis View in CoL has numerous spreading stems arising from the very base of the plant, with most of the stems quite narrow. The overall form of the type suggests that the plant was prostrate to decumbent, but the type collection and earlier accounts did not describe the orientation of the stems ( Northrop 1902; Britton 1903; Britton & Millspaugh 1920; Gillis 1974; Correll & Correll 1982). More recently, W. bahamensis View in CoL was defined as a shrub to 0.6 (rarely 1) m tall, with stems prostrate, decumbent, to spreading, and leaf blades mostly sparsely stellate-pubescent with the arms of stellate hairs to 0.5 mm long (Saunders 1995, 2015).
The type specimens and descriptions of W. bahamensis match numerous specimens in Florida ( Fig. 15A, 15B View FIG ). In Florida, Waltheria bahamensis is associated with relatively undegraded habitats and it has an oddly disjunct distribution, in the coastal strands of the Gulf Coast, the Lake Wales ridge scrub, and rocklands of Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys. Its occurrence in high-quality habitat supports the contention that it is a native component of the Florida flora.
Waltheria indica is weedy and fond of disturbed sites, including disturbed edges of habitats typical for W. bahamensis . Two specimens, one from the Bahamas and one from Sanibel Island, Lee County, Florida, were cited as intermediate between W. bahamensis and W. indica (Saunders 1995) ; likewise, the pubescence of Gillis 11458 (FTG) of Key Biscayne, Miami-Dade County, Florida seems to approach W. indica , yet its numerous stems from the base align well with W. bahamensis .
The growth habit and leaf blade pubescence are useful for distinguishing the two species of Waltheria in Florida.The flowers of W. bahamensis are reportedly slightly smaller than those of W. indica , and the capsule of W. bahamensis possesses a puberulent line at the apical valve margin that is lacking in W. indica (Saunders 1995, 2015). The hirsutulous pubescence of the style of the two taxa (e.g., illustrated on the lectotype of W. bahamensis ) seem very similar (Saunders 1995), although Saunders (2015) described it as sericeous in W. bahamensis .
There is reportedly some variability in the leaf blade color of W. bahamensis , as currently defined, from green to bronze or dark reddish. Originally, the leaf blades of W. bahamensis were described as dark green and paler below ( Britton 1903; Britton & Millspaugh 1920). Prostrate to decumbent plants that appear very similar to the type collection have been observed with green to olive leaf blades (e.g., Fig.15A View FIG , Lee County, Florida and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63757629, Grand Bahama, Bahamas). Recent literature has described the leaf blades as tinged reddish or brown, usually bronze-tinged, dark brown, or coppery, and further considered such a color to be diagnostic of the species ( Gillis 1974; Correll & Correll 1982; Saunders 1995, 2015; Freid et al. 2014: Fig. 2f View FIG ). Bronze, coppery, or dark reddish leaf blades are not known on any Florida specimens, except one occurrence from Miami-Dade County ( Fig 15C View FIG ). Notably, this occurrence ( Fig. 15C View FIG ) was found adjacent to green-leaved plants of W. indica and it was recorded during a very wet time of year; thus, it is difficult to reconcile this observation as a simple consequence of temporal stress ( Chalker-Scott 1999). Further investigation of leaf blade color and the taxonomy of Waltheria L. in Florida and the Bahamas is warranted.
Saunders (2015) reported hybrids between Waltheria glabra Poir. (a species from Guadeloupe) and W. bahamensis in Florida, and a specimen (Correll & Correll 52704, FTG) was annotated as W. cf. rotundifolia Schrank (a species from Brazil). Given the absence of specimens clearly identified as these species in Florida, it is unclear if either taxon does indeed occur at all in Florida.Two species, W.arenicola A.Rodr. and W. microphylla Cav. , both of Cuba, are low-growing plants with small leaves and may need to be critically compared with the similar W. bahamensis .
In the protologue, Britton identified the collection Curtiss 117 as the type but did not specify the herbarium. The NY specimen is here designated the lectotype .
| NY |
William and Lynda Steere Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden |
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.