Coffea malabarica (Sivar., Biju & P.Mathew) Davis, Aaron P., 2010

Davis, Aaron P., 2010, Six species of Psilanthus transferred to Coffea (Coffeeae, Rubiaceae), Phytotaxa 10, pp. 41-45 : 42

Coffea malabarica (Sivar., Biju & P.Mathew) A.P.Davis, comb. nov.

Basionym:— Psilanthus malabaricus Sivar., Biju & P.Mathew (1992: 219) . Type : INDIA. Malabar, 1836, R. Wight 1431 (holotype K!).

Distribution: —Western India (Malabar). TDWG: 40 IND.

Characteristics:— Psilanthus malabaricus was synonymised under P. fragrans (Wall. ex Hook.f.) J.- F.Leroy by Deb (2020). These species, although similar in overall appearance, are easily distinguished by leaf and inflorescence morphology, in agreement with the circumscription proposed by Sivarajan et al. (1992). In particular, the leaves of C. malabarica lack the very distinctive cross veins of C. fragrans Wall. ex Hook. f., have inflorescences regularly confined to the nodes (vs. inflorescences terminal on short shoots or confined to the upper nodes only), a short calyx limb with rather few colleters (vs. large, cup-like calyx limb with many colleters). Coffea malabarica and C. fragrans possess leaf domatia, in contradiction to the identification key and descriptions for these species given in Sivarajan et al. (1992) which incorrectly states that domatia are in absent in these species.