Cyphostemma mendesii F.Sousa, 2010

Sousa, Filipe De, Figueiredo, Estrela & Smith, Gideon F., 2010, Cyphostemma mendesii (Vitaceae), a new species from Angola, Phytotaxa 7, pp. 35-39 : 36-38

Cyphostemma mendesii F.Sousa , sp. nov. ( Fig.1 & Fig. 2 )

Species C. prurienti affinis sed caule perenne, foliis perparvioribus foliolisque densiore pubescentibus, alabastris pilis glandulosis paucioribus brevioribusque.

TYPE:— ANGOLA: Moçâmedes: Dois Irmãos, ca. Pedra da Providência , 21 December 1955, Mendes 1145 (holotype and isotype LISC)

Erect, rhizomatous herb; older stems thickened, succulent, branched, bark papyraceous, glabrous, brownish; young stems densely covered with brown glandular hairs and short, whitish hairs; tendrils absent; leaves digitately 5-foliolate, petioles up to 40 mm long, indument as for young stems; leaflets petiolate, petiolules up to 6 mm long, lamina elliptic-oblong, up to 40 × 20 mm, greyish, apex acuminate, margin serrate, base rounded to sub-cordate with dense, white pubescence and short, brownish, glandular hairs on both surfaces; stipules lanceolate, up to 10 × 2 mm, indument as for leaflets; cymes leaf-opposed or pseudoterminal, up to 100 mm long and 160 mm wide; peduncle up to 30 mm long, pedicels ca. 8 mm long; all branches of inflorescence with same indument as young stems, bracts and bracteoles ca. 2 mm long, lanceolate, pubescent; flower bud ca. 3 mm long, constricted at middle, pubescent and with short glandular hairs at apex; calyx pubescent, margins entire. Style ca. 1.5 mm long, stigma 2-fid, ovary pubescent, nectary disk with 4 glands; fruit sub-globose to ovoid with long, dark glandular hairs; seed sub-globose, ca. 7 × 7 mm.

Distribution:— Angola, Province of Namibe, between Caracul and Munhino, at 400–700 m on inselberglike rocky outcrops.

Etymology:—The species is named after Dr Eduardo José Santos Moreira Mendes (born in Lisbon in 1924), a Portuguese botanist who collected the material on which this description is based. He participated in the “Southwestern Angola Campaign 1955–1956”, which lasted for six months, from August 1955 to February 1956. During this expedition he collected ca. 1750 specimens and explored the territory corresponding to the present day provinces of Namibe, Huíla and Cunene. In 1959 Mendes returned to Angola to lead the “Southeastern Angola Campaign”. He was the director of the Centro de Botânica of the Tropical Research Institute (Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical) from 1974 to his retirement in 1986 ( Martins 1994).

Additional specimen examined (paratype):— ANGOLA: Moçâmedes: pr. de Cuto, 24 December 1955, Mendes 1164 ( LISC)

Figures

FIGURE 1. The type specimen (Mendes 1145) of Cyphostemma mendesii.

FIGURE 2. A plant of Cyphostemma mendesii before the growth of new stems (Photo E.J.Mendes, taken in 1955).