Landolphia

Jongkind, Carel C. H. & Lachenaud, Olivier, 2022, Novelties in African Apocynaceae, Candollea 77 (1), pp. 17-51 : 26

Landolphia

Landolphia is a genus with 60 species, including the new species published here, and is endemic to Africa and Madagascar ( VAN DILST, 1999 ; ENDRESS et al., 2018). It belongs to tribe Willughbeieae , subtribe Landolphiinae , a group of climbing (or rarely suffrutescent) plants with left-contorted corolla aestivation, absence of corona, anthers included and fertile to the base, syncarpous ovaries, and fleshy fruits with albuminate seeds. Landolphia is by far the largest genus in this group; most other genera of the subtribe appear to be little more than satellites of Landolphia , and their position in relation to the latter needs further investigation, which is outside the scope of this paper.

The last revision of Landolphia for continental Africa was published almost 30 years ago ( PERSOON et al., 1992) and many new specimens have been collected since. A review of the material from Atlantic Central Africa resulted in the discovery of four new species, which are described here. Two of them are based on recent collections not seen by the authors of the last revision; the other two, L. verrucosa Jongkind & O. Lachenaud and L. obovata O. Lachenaud & Jongkind , had previously been mistaken for L. owariensis P. Beauv. and L. glandulosa (Pellegr.) Pichon , respectively. The latter species, treated here in its strict sense, is a rare Gabonese endemic, and a new description of it is presented since that in PERSOON et al. (1992) is largely based on material here referred to L. obovata . Landolphia owariensis remains a very widespread and common species, for which PERSOON et al. (1992) presented an accurate description.