Tephrosia canarensis Drummond (1918: 319)

Krishnaraj, Moothedathu Venugopalan Nair & Mohanan, Narayanan Nair, 2017, Three lectotypifications in Tephrosia Pers. (Fabaceae), Phytotaxa 319 (2), pp. 197-199 : 198

Tephrosia canarensis Drummond (1918: 319) .

Lectotype (here designated):— INDIA. South Karnataka: Prope Urbem Mangalor , s.n., s.d., without collector name( K000848892 ! [digital photo!]).

Note:—This species is named after the Kanara region of Karnataka, comprises of three coastal districts namely, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada. Drummond described Tephrosia canarensis in Gamble’s Flora of Presidency of Madras (1918) and commented “An erect undershrub with large reddish flowers and leaflets up to 2.5 inch long”. In the protologue, the distributional range is given as “Western Ghats in South Canara, extending northwards, southwards to Wynaad [Wayanadu]”. This suggests that the author had seen more than one specimen or was familiar with the taxon in the field, the latter being unlikely. Drummond also cited T. tinctoria, Persoon (1827:329) var. interrupta, Baker in F.B.I. ii. 112 in part only under T. canarensis . Not only the varietal epithet ‘interrupta’ but also the author name ‘Baker’ seems to be a mistake on Drummond’s part, because there was no such variety described by Baker (1876) in the Flora of British India. However var. intermedia is given under T. tinctoria by Baker as coined by Wight and Arnott (= T. intermedia Graham ex Wall. in Wall. Cat. 1832: 5632).

After a thorough search at MH and K herbaria, we found several specimens of T. canarensis , collected from South Canara and studied by Drummond [South Canara, Gurpur, s.d., Lawson 7183 (MH00206929!); South Canara, Nibohwar, 6.12.1919, without collector name, (MH00206930!);South Canara, Jahlsur, 21. 11. 1900, Barber 2493 (MH00206931!) and South Karnataka, Prope Urbem Mangalor, s.n., s.d., without collector name (K000848892!)].Since sheet K000848892 deposited at Kew herbarium bears the determinavit slip of J.R.Drummond, and also matches the protologue, it is here selected as the lectotype of T. canarensis .This species is mainly distributed in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, andTamil Nadu (endemic to Southern Western Ghats).