Schumannianthus benthamianus (Kuntze 1892: 684) Veldkamp & Turner (2016: 47)

Niissalo, Matti A., Khew, Gillian S., Webb, Edward L. & Leong-Škorničková, Jana, 2016, Notes on Singaporean native Zingiberales II: revision of Marantaceae, with a new generic record and notes on naturalised and commonly cultivated exotic species, Phytotaxa 289 (3), pp. 201-224 : 216

7. Schumannianthus benthamianus (Kuntze 1892: 684) Veldkamp & Turner (2016: 47)

Schumannianthus benthamianus , is included in Singapore’s Checklist of Vascular Plants ( Chong et al. 2009) and in the national Red List ( Davison et al. 2008), where it is listed as nationally Critically Endangered. As there is no specimen of this species at any herbaria we have examined, the above assessment remains puzzling. The first mention of this species in Singapore appears to be in the Concise Flora of Singapore (Keng et al. 1998), which does not cite any specimens. While there were two specimens of Donax canniformis from Pulau Ubin at SING mistakenly determined as S. benthamianus , both of these post-date the Checklist and the Red List. The species was reported in 2006 in an online checklist of plants at Pulau Ubin (published by National Parks Board Singapore, but the checklist is no longer available), probably based on the same misidentified population of Donax (data not supported by specimens). We suspect these misidentified specimens may be the reason it was included in the Red List. Although this species is widespread in the Malesian region, with the absence of any specimen (or existence of living population seen and confirmed by us) from Singapore, we consider this species not native to Singapore. The species is sold in local nurseries and is sometimes planted in Singapore near water features in parks or even in close proximity to nature reserves for its attractive, large, white flowers. The species is similar in appearance to D. canniformis , but differs from it by the larger flowers (ca. 3.5 cm), less branched and erect inflorescences, smaller leaves (length less than 15 cm) and glabrous midrib on the lower side of the leaf blades.

The species has until recently been universally referred to as S. dichotomus , which was recently shown to be invalid since its original circumscription included the earlier Donax canniformis ( Veldkamp & Turner, 2016) .