Millettia pulchra

Song, Zhuqiu, Ouyang, Xuejun, Zuo, Lei & Huang, Zhongliang, 2017, The identity of Fordia microphylla and lectotypification of Millettia pulchra (Fabaceae: Millettieae), Phytotaxa 332 (1), pp. 51-58 : 54-57

Lectotypification of Millettia pulchra

Millettia pulchra Kurz (1873:69) was originally published as Mundulea pulchra Bentham (1852: 248) . In the protologue, Bentham provided no specimens, but cited three nomen nudum as its synonyms, i.e. “ Tephrosia pulchra Grah. in Wall. Cat. n. 5630”, “ Pongamia cassioides Wall. Cat. n. 5918”, and “ Dalbergia tephrosioides W. et Arn. Prodr. v. 1. p. 210 in adnot.”, and pointed out that the species occurs “in Sillet, Assam et in montibus Avae”. This information suggests that the original material of Mundulea pulchra include more than one gathering (e.g. Wallich Cat. 5630 and 5918), and therefore they should be regarded as the syntypes. And obviously, the description was mainly based on Wallich Cat. 5630, as suggested by the epithet. In the Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam, Loc & Vidal (2001) indicated that Wallich 5630 (K) is the “ holotype ” of Millettia pulchra . But, this indication is not achieved for lectotypification according to the Art. 9.23 because it was made after 1 January 2001.

Under the species Millettia pulchra, Dunn (1912) recognized six infraspecific taxa, including the new variety M. pulchra var. typica Dunn (1912: 151) and the new form M. pulchra var. typica f. laxior Dunn (1912: 151) . However var. typica was not validly published according to Art. 24.3 of the ICN ( Zhu et al. 2007), because the final epithet purported to indicate var. typica contains the type of the species, and this intent of Dunn was accepted by most subsequent taxonomists (e.g. Wei 1985, 1994, Sanjappa 1992, Loc & Vidal 2001, Wu et al. 2003, Sun 2006, Wei & Pedley 2010). As a result, any indication of the type for the name var. typica by Dunn (1912) did not effectively lectotypify the name Millettia pulchra .

After a critical examination, we found that Wallich Cat.5630 consists of four collections (5630A-D) and traced many duplicates at K, two of which were annotated with “ Tephrosia pulchra, Sillet, H. I. 5630” and stamped “HERBARIUM BENTHAMIANUM 1854”. Thus the two specimens may be the original material used by Bentham, which might be Wallich Cat. 5630A and were collected by W. Gomez from “Mont Sillet”. One specimen (K000848693, Fig. 2D ) consists of several complete leaves, two inflorescences, and a young pod, corresponding well with the protologue. But this specimen was labeled “ Millettia pulchra Kurz var. typica f. laxior ” by Dunn, who conducted an influential revision on the genus Millettia ( Dunn 1912, Song et al. 2017). It may be regarded as one of original material of M. pulchra f. laxior and might be accepted by later authors. Considering the established custom of the use of names and avoiding some possible confusion in the future, we therefore designate the other specimen (K000848694, Fig. 3E ) as the lectotype of Mundulea pulchra Bentham. The lectotype is also labeled “typum” by Dunn and comprises three flowering branches and many relative small leaflets, matching the Bentham’s protologue and being consistent with the identified characteristics of Millettia pulchra var. pulchra by Dunn and most subsequent authors (e.g. Wei 1985, 1994, Wei & Pedley 2010).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Millettia pulchra. A–C. holotype of Fordia microphylla (S. W. Deng 90963, IBSC0180023), A. the whole, B. leaflets, C. young legumes; D–F.one of original material of Millettia pulchra var.pulchra (Wallich Cat. 5630, K000848693), D. the whole, E. leaflets, F. young legume. Scale bar = 1 cm. Image Copyright of K000848693: the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Used with permission.

FIGURE 3. Millettia pulchra var. pulchra. A–B. isotype of Fordia microphylla (S. W. Deng 90963, IBK00072408), A. the whole, B. axillary pseudoraceme; C–D. isotype of Fordia microphylla (S. W. Deng 90963, IBK00072407), C. young legumes, showing several seeds, D. the whole; E. lectotype of Millettia pulchra var. pulchra (Wallich Cat. 5630, K000848694). Image Copyright of K000848694: the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Used with permission.