Fagraea coromandelina Wight (1848

Venugopal, Divya K., Francis, Dani, Mohan, Vishnu & Nampy, Santhosh, 2018, Notes on taxonomic identity and typification of Fagraea coromandelina (Gentianaceae), Phytotaxa 360 (3), pp. 292-295 : 292-294

Fagraea coromandelina Wight (1848 : t. 1316)

— Fagraea obovata sensu Gamble p.p. (1921: 865)

— Fagraea obovata sensu C.B. Clarke p.p. in Hooker (1885: 83)

Lectotype (designated here):— INDIA. Tamil Nadu: Courtallum , 1835, Robert Wight 548 ( E barcode E00173543 [digital photo!]).

Description:—Trees or shrubs, 1.5–2 m tall, often epiphytic or lithophytic. Stems branched, woody with prominent leaf scars, glabrous. Leaves simple, opposite, 10–12 × 4–6 cm, obovate, coriaceous, sessile, obtuse to rounded at apex, cuneate at base, entire at margins, both surfaces glabrous, fleshy; veins prominent only on adaxial surface; stipules absent. Cymes terminal, 3-flowered; peduncles 2–3 cm long, glabrous, green; bracts absent. Flowers bisexual, ca. 6 × 2 cm. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, ca. 1 × 1 cm; oblong, lobes thick, rounded at apex, imbricate, green, glabrous, persistent. Corolla 5-lobed, ca. 5.6 × 2 cm, widely obovate, twisted and slightly overlapping to the right in bud, cream coloured, glabrous, fleshy; apex rounded, reflexed; corolla tube ca. 1 cm wide from base. Stamens 5, equal, adnate to the corolla tube, exserted; filaments ca. 4 cm long, slender with a thickening at base, cream coloured; anthers oblong, ca. 0.5 × 0.3 cm, dithecous, dorsifixed, glabrous. Ovary 2-celled, oblong, ovules many; styles slender, ca. 4.9 × 0.1 cm, exserted; stigma capitate. Berries rounded, ca. 4.5 × 3.5 cm, green with persistent calyx; seeds nearly oblong-reniform, numerous, cells of seed coat isodiametric, hilum prominent at the base, brownish at maturity.

Distribution:—South India, endemic.

Ecology:—In shola forests, usually along banks of streams at an elevation about 1600m, epiphytic or lithophytic.

Flowering and fruiting:—March-December.

Nomenclatural notes:— Wight (1848) in the protologue, cited only the collection locality “Courtallum and Coonoor (Nilgiris)”. We traced 5 specimens collected by Robert Wight : one at K collected from Nilgiris (barcode K000883562) and 4 at E collected from Courtallum (barcodes E00173543, E00173544, E00179254, E00179255). These specimens completely agree with the protologue, and can be safely considered as original material (Art. 9.3. of the ICN, Turland et al. 2018). The specimen kept at E (barcode E00173543), shows all the characters mentioned in the protologue, and is designated here as the lectotype for the name Fagraea coromandelina .

Taxonomic notes:— Wight (1848) described two species of Fagraea in his Icones Planatarum Indiae Orientalis: F. coromandelina Wight and F. malabarica Wight. The two species can be distinguished from each other by presence (vs absence) of petiole, round (vs elliptic) fruits, nature of corolla tube (wide vs slender) and presence or absence of thickening at the base of filaments. Wight considered F. malabarica as closely related to F. ceilanica Thunb. but F. coromandelina as a quite distinct species. Later, other authors treated F. coromandelina as a synonym of F. obovata (Type: BANGLADESH. Silhet, s.die, Desilva 1595.1 (K001113547 [digital photo!]) or F. ceilanica (Isolectotype designated by Wong & Sugumaran 2012: 75): SRI LANKA. s.die, Thunberg S07-8227 (GOET [digital photo!]). Detailed analyses of the type material, protologue and live specimens revealed that F. coromandelina ( Fig. 1 ) is quite distinct and can be separated from F. obovata or F. ceilanica (see Table 1) and it is reinstated here as a distinct species.

Additional specimens examined: — INDIA. Kerala: Idukki district, Mathikettan shola National park, Choondal , 20 September 2017, Divya K. Venugopal & Santhosh Nampy 154133 ; Changalakavalai , 29 December 2014, Syam Radh & Santhosh Nampy 137913 ; Onnamthodu , 08 May 2015, Santhosh Nampy & Syam Radh 137971 ; Periyar Tiger Reserve, Mangaladevi hills, 15 July 2017, Santhosh Nampy & Divya K. Venugopal 154122 ( CALI!). Tamil Nadu: Nilgiri district , Nilgiri hills, s.die, s. coll. s.n. ( MH00257131 !) ; s.loc., 16 March 1983, s.coll. s.n. ( MH00257282 !) ; ibidem, 1835, Wight s.n. ( K000883562 !). Tirunelveli district , Courtallum, 1835, Wight s.n. ( E00173543 !, 00173544!) ; ibidem, 1830, Wight s.n. ( E00179254 !, 00179255!) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. A-C. Fagraea coromandelina Wight, D-F. Fagraea obovata Wall. A and D. Leaves; B and E. Flowers; C and F. Fruits.