Gardneria Wall.

Julius, Avelinah, Kamin, Imin, Kiew, Ruth & Utteridge, Timothy M. A., 2013, Gardneria and Spigelia (Loganiaceae), two genera new to the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia, Phytotaxa 129 (1), pp. 39-46 : 40-42

Gardneria Wall. in Roxburgh (1820: 400).

Glabrous, unarmed, scrambling shrubs or climbers. Leaves opposite and petiolate, connected by interpetiolar stipular ridges, pinnately veined, margins entire. Inflorescences lateral, axillary, dichasial, usually fewflowered or flowers solitary, sometimes lax and many-flowered. Flowers 4−5-merous, calyx deeply lobed, lobes rounded; corolla rotate, thin-fleshy, valvate in bud; ovary superior, 2-locular, 1−4 ovules per locule, style long and slender. Fruit a globose berry. Seeds smooth, ellipsoid to orbicular.

Distribution: —A genus of seven species distributed in SE and E Asia; one species in Malesia (Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Java and Sumba).

Gardneria ovata Wall. in Roxburgh (1820: 400) ( Fig. 1 ). Type:— BANGLADESH. Sylhet, M.R. Smith in Wallich Cat. 816 (lectotype K!; isolectotypes BM photo!, G-DC photo!, K-2 sheets!, K-W!, M photo!, NY photo!, P-3 sheets photo!; selected by Leenhouts 1962a: 438).

A scrambling shrub or climber, 1−5 m tall. Leaves elliptic, 7.5−9 × 2.5−3.2 cm, chartaceous, base slightly decurrent, margin entire, revolute and slightly wavy, apex gradually acute-acuminate to caudate; secondary veins 5−9 pairs, curving upwards and joining towards the margin to form distinctly looped intramarginal veins, prominent beneath; intercostal veins reticulate and raised beneath; petiole 1−1.5 cm long. Inflorescences pendulous, 2−4 cm long, (1−)3−10-flowered to laxly thyrsoid; peduncle 5−20 mm long, pedicels 5−13 mm long, bibracteolate. Flowers 4-merous. Sepals green, rounded, 2−3 mm wide, ciliate. Corolla yellow to orange, waxy, tube almost none, lobes elliptic, ca. 4 × 3 mm, thick, apex acute, inside papillose-pubescent. Stamens inserted just above the base of the corolla-tube, anthers cohering mutually, erect, broadly ovate or elliptic, ca. 2.5 × 1.5 mm, truncate, 2-celled. Ovary 5− 1.5 mm long, tapering into the 1−1.5 mm long style, stigma faintly 2-parted. Ovules 1 per cell. Fruit ca. 0.75 cm in diameter, 1- or 2-seeded. Seeds orbicular, ca. 0.5 cm in diameter, smooth, dull grey.

Distribution: — Bangladesh, Myanmar, SW China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, N Sumatra and W Java.

Specimens examined: — MALAYSIA. Peninsular Malaysia: Pahang, Fraser’s Hill, below Richmond Bungalow , 3°44'N, 101°42'E, 27 October 2010 (fl), Julius et al. FRI 73619 (K, KEP, SAN) .

Habitat: —In open areas along montane forest edges, in Fraser’s Hill at 1270 m.

Conservation status:— Endangered B2ab(iii) (following IUCN 2012). In Malaysia, this species is known only from the Fraser’s Hill resort, popular with tourists and a well-botanised locality with a published checklist ( Kiew 1998). In addition, many of the mountains in the Peninsular with similar habitats have been collected since the late nineteenth century (see Burkill 1927 for a list of early expeditions in the Peninsular), suggesting that it is a very rare species. Currently, the only locality of G. ovata does not fall within a protected area, and disturbance from resort development, road building and agricultural expansion in the Fraser’s Hill area threatens the plant’s habitat (see Kiew 1998: 23). The conservation status given above is applicable to Peninsular Malaysian populations, and is given here to highlight the regional conservation needs, and in preparation for the production of the Malaysian Plant Red List; see Chua (2010, 2012) for an introduction and discussion of the approach of conservation assessments used for the Flora of Peninsular Malaysia and the Malaysian Plant Red List. Throughout its entire range, G. ovata , is not commonly collected (most collections being historical ones from Bangladesh), and is given a category of Near Threatened (NT): the species does not fall within a threat category, but the loss of some of the populations (i.e. a reduction in the number of known locations, and therefore the extent of occurrence), may result in the species qualifying for a threatened category in the future.

Phenology:— Flowering in October.

Notes: — Gardneria ovata can be recognised by its shrubby and/or scrambling habit, the opposite, entire leaves with an indistinct interpetiolar stipular ridge (rather than the distinct interpetiolar stipules of Rubiaceae ), the axillary inflorescences, the waxy, almost coriaceous, yellow-orange corolla, the coherent stamens (appearing fused) and the superior ovary. In the Flora Malesiana region, this species is known only from a single locality each from Malaysia, Java and Sumatra, and we assume that G. ovata , whilst not present in large populations, has been overlooked throughout its range in Malesia. The species, especially when sterile, is extremely similar to members of the Rubiaceae , of which there are several climbing genera in Malesia, and it may be ignored by collectors as a more common and widespread member of the Rubiaceae (exacerbated, perhaps, by the presence of Gaertnera Lamarck (1792 : t. 167) and Gardenia Ellis (1762: 935, t. 23) within that family!). The lack of distinct interpetiolar stipules, especially in the young parts, and the superior ovary, however, are diagnostic characters which will exclude any Rubiaceae .

Wallich first described the species in the first volume of Roxburgh’s Flora Indica (1820), which included only part of Roxburgh’s original manuscript but with the addition of numerous notes and additions by Wallich (see Stafleu & Cowan 1983: 955). (Roxburgh’s ‘original’ Flora Indica manuscript without Wallich’s additions was published in 1832.) The genus commemorates Edward Gardner (1784−1861) the first permanent British Resident in Nepal from 1816 to 1829, who corresponded extensively with Wallich throughout his life, and invited Wallich on a collecting expedition in Nepal between December 1820 and November 1821 (see Watson 2008). Wallich’s initial description made no mention of the locality or distribution of the species (Wallich in Roxburgh 1820: 400), but in a later addition to the generic description, as well as the description of an additional species G. angustifolia Wallich (in Roxburgh 1824: 318), he stated that G. ovata was “introduced from Silhet into the Hon. Company’s botanic garden at Calcutta”. This corresponds with the specimen in the East India Company Herbarium (EIC; often referred to as the ‘Wallich Herbarium’) and listed in Wallich’s Numerical List under entry 816 ( Wallich 1829). Majumdar and Banerjee (1976) provide a list of collectors in the East India Company Herbarium, as well as guidelines for citing the specimens in the EIC. It is of note that Leenhouts (1962a: 438) selected a duplicate ‘ex Herb. Hookerianum’ of M.R. Smith in Wallich Cat. 816 in the main Kew herbarium rather than the specimen in the EIC (there is no determination slip on the EIC specimen, for example), probably because specimens of the EIC are not sent on loan. Interestingly, after the initial description of the genus, Wallich uses the spelling Gardnera (e.g. Wallich 1832: 17, tab. 231 & 49, tab. 281), but we have retained the original spelling as Wallich did not explicitly state he was correcting the first spelling and Gardneria is the spelling in common use today.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Gardneria ovata A. Flowers. B. Habit. C. The pendulous inflorescences. Photos from Julius et al. FRI 73619 by Timothy Utteridge.