Achyranthes porphyrostachya Wall. ex Moq.

Sukhorukov, Alexander P., Kushunina, Maria, Nilova, Maya V., Baider, Cláudia & Sennikov, Alexander N., 2024, Africa and Arabia encompass a much greater species diversity in the Achyranthes aspera aggregate (Amaranthaceae, achyranthoid clade): Evidence from morphological and chorological data, PhytoKeys 250, pp. 21-94 : 21-94

Achyranthes porphyrostachya Wall. ex Moq. in DC., Prodr. 13 (2): 316 (1849), as “ porphyristachya ”.

≡ Achyranthes aspera var. porphyrostachya (Wall.) Hook. f. , Fl. Brit. India 4 (12): 730 (1885).

= Achyranthes robusta C. H. Wright , Fl. Cap. (Harvey) 5 (1.2): 428 (1901). Lectotype (designated here): South Africa, [KwaZulu-] Natal , near Durban, 100 ft, [without date] [Wood] 7202 ( K 000243729 !).

= Achyranthes aspera var. procera Fiori , Giorn. Bot. Ital., n. s., 19: 437 (1912). Holotype: [ Ethiopia, Tigray Region] in vallibus juxta fruticeta 4–8 pedalis prope Adoa [Adwa], 5 November 1838, Schimper 1234 [Iter Abyssinicum, ser. 2 (1842)] ( FI 000824 !, isotypes BM!, BR 0000008356987 !, FI-WEBB 154842 !, K!, L 1673915 , M 0241518 !).

= Achyranthes aspera [var. argentea] f. suffruticosa Fiori , Giorn. Bot. Ital., n. s., 19: 438 (1912). Lectotype (designated here): Eritrea, [Dek’emhare] Hamasen , Ghinda – Baresa, 960 m a. s. l., 26 January 1909, A. Fiori 52 ( FT 001025 !; isolectotypes FT 001026 !, FI!).

= Achyranthes aspera f. robustiformis Suess. , Mitt. Bot. Staatssamml. München 1: 70 (1951). Lectotype (designated by Townsend 1985): Tanganyika area [ Tanzania], Ngorongoro crater, 5000 ft, 9 April 1941, P. R. O. Bally 2273 ( K!).

– Achyranthes aspera auct. in herb. div.

– Achyranthes aspera var. pubescens auct.: Townsend (1985, 1993 b, 1988, 2000), Audru et al. (1994), Boulos (1995), Miller (1996); Wood (1997), Germishuizen and Meyer (2003), Mapaura et al. (2004), Setshogo (2005), Gibreel and Darbyshire (2015), Odorico et al. (2022), Hassan et al. (2023).

– Achyranthes aspera f. fruticosa auct. in herb. div.

– Achyranthes aspera var. late-ovata auct. in herb. K.

– Achyranthes aspera var. pinguispicata Clarke , nom. nud. in herb. K.

Lectotype (designated here).

Myanmar. “ Tong Dong ” [“ towards the Hills ” = on the way from Sagaing to Shan Hills ], 23 November 1826, N. Wallich in Herb. Wallich 6925 / 841 ( K 000848076 !; possible isolectotypes G-DC [image!], E 00317548 !) . Other syntype: Myanmar. “ Tong Dong ” [ Thone Taung ], 24 November 1826, N. Wallich in Herb. Wallich 6925 / 841 ( K 001126247 !) .

Description.

(Fig. 14 ). Subshrub to 2.5 (3.0) m tall, stout, not rooting at the nodes; young stem round or indistinctly four-angled; leaf petioles 10–20 mm long, blades 40–140 × 40–80 mm long, ovate (rarely oblong) and entire, dark green above and gray below, both sides hirsute especially below (some individuals probably growing under more humid conditions as well as cultivated indoors may be sparsely pubescent resembling A. acuminata ); inflorescence long, up to 120 cm, stout, bract 3.5–4.0 mm long; bracteoles 3.0– 3.3 mm long; perianth (5.0–5.5) 6.0– 7.5 mm long, green or pale outside and rose or pink inside, tip often violet; stamens 5 with pink filaments, anthers 0.9–1.1 mm long oblong; pseudostaminodes 1.5–3.5 mm long, white or pink, fimbriate or not; style with stigma (2.5) 3.0–4.0 mm long (slightly less than perianth or equalling the perianth); fruit (without style) (2.0) 2.3–2.7 mm long.

Taxonomic notes.

The variety Achyranthes fruticosa var. pubescens Moq. was described from East Mexico ( Moquin-Tandon 1849), and the data about its native status in the Old World, including African references ( Wunderlin and Hansen 2011), are erroneous. Two further combinations under A. aspera were made: A. aspera var. pubescens (Moq.) M. Gómez, Noc. Bot. Sist. : 58 (1893), and the isonymic A. aspera var. pubescens (Moq.) C. C. Towns., Kew Bull. 29: 473 (1974). The plants growing in Central America have different reproductive characters compared with A. porphyrostachya (e. g., Sánchez-Del Pino et al. 2013, as A. aspera var. pubescens ). This varietal name cannot be applied to the plants in the Old World, although it was widely used for the perennial African and Arabian populations of Achyranthes . A lectotype of A. fruticosa var. pubescens was selected by Townsend (1974) [Tampico de Tamaulipas, 1827, Berlandier 79-104 - 105 ( G 00236794 – image!], and a later lectotypification with the same specimen undertaken by Hassan et al. (2023) is superfluous.

A plant of A. porphyrostachya cultivated by APS indoors (seeds originating from Manyara Region, Tanzania) has much more glabrous leaves (Fig. 14 B ) compared to the voucher specimen located in MW.

Nomenclatural notes.

The original spelling “ porphyristachya ” ( Moquin-Tandon 1849) is a correctable error under Art. 60.10. The species name was established on the basis of Wallich’s collections from present-day Myanmar. Moquin-Tandon studied specimens in the personal herbarium of Candolle, which were indicated as “ v. s. in h. DC. ” in the protologue, and other specimens with the Wallich distribution number, which was cited in the protologue (“ Wall.! list n. 6925 ”). The original material of Achyranthes porphyrostachya was collected for and subsequently distributed on behalf of the Honourable East India Company (E. I. C.).

A. P. de Candolle obtained a large set of Wallich specimens (34 packages: Krieger 2023) in 1830, when his son Alphonse visited Wallich in London and negotiated herbarium distribution and taxonomic treatments for himself and his father ( Candolle and Radcliffe-Smith 1981). The specimens of Achyranthes were dispatched to Candolle prior to their regular distribution from the E. I. C., which was ready in 1832 ( Wallich 1832). Labels for the specimens received in 1830 by Candolle had been copied and numbered separately, and were renumbered for the regular distribution later (cf. a note on the double numeration in Compositae: Wallich 1831). On the labels of A. porphyrostachya , the Candolle number is 841 ( K 001126247, G 00688936, G 00688937), whereas its corresponding Wallich number is 6925 (E 00317548, K 001126247, K 000848076).

The labels of Wallich 6925 say it is from “ Tong Dong 1826 ”, or Thone Taung Village, Mandalay Region, Myanmar. The Candolle labels are more detailed and informative, and apparently preserve the original field information which was generalised when distribution numbers were formed. Two specimens at G-DC ( G 00688936, G 00688937) have identical labels reading “ towards the Hills, 23 Nov. 1826 ”, indicating the route between the Irawadi River at Sagaing, from which Wallich proceeded towards the Shan Hills on 22 November, being the next day on the way to the Hills “ through villages, rice and cotton fields ” ( Krieger 2023: 178). One specimen at Kew, which also bears a regular distribution label, was originally labelled as “ road to Tong Dong ” and “ Tong Dong, 24 Nov. ”, seemingly indicating the arrival at the hilly area of Thone Taung ( Candolle and Radcliffe-Smith 1981). This specimen was kept in the Wallich herbarium until its transfer to the Linnean Society in 1857 ( Candolle and Radcliffe-Smith 1981), and therefore was not seen by Moquin-Tandon. Two more specimens examined (E 00317548, K 000848076) bear the standard lithographed distribution labels without further detailed information. The Kew specimen ( K 000848076) belongs to the set acquired by J. D. Hooker from the possessions of the E. I. C., which was examined in entirety by Moquin-Tandon.

The original material of A. porphyrostachya includes two specimens in the personal herbarium of Candolle, which belong to the Wallich collection and bear the species name on original labels with Candolle numbers (examined by Moquin-Tandon according to the protologue), and one specimen in the personal herbarium of Hooker, which was labelled with a lithographed distribution label and annotated by Moquin-Tandon. The latter specimen was directly indicated in the protologue by its distribution number and therefore has precedence in lectotypification. This specimen is formally designated as lectotype here. The two specimens at G-DC and a specimen at E are similar in their appearance and may be treated as isolectotypes.

Achyranthes aspera f. suffruticosa Fiori as lectotypified here is a more glabrous form of A. porphyrostachya . Another specimen of the original material (Hamasen: Ghinda, 960 m a. s. l., 26 January 1909, A. Fiori 954, FT 001027! as A. aspera var. argentea f. suffruticosa ) is referable to A. annua .

Habitat.

Various disturbed areas, especially near roadsides, in disturbed savanna communities and bush thickets, mostly in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa, S and SW Asia at elevations of (0) 500–2700 m a. s. l. Common in the open ± disturbed highland vegetation types in Tanzania ( APS, pers. obs.). A common appearance of A. aspera in the mountain steppe-like vegetation in Rwanda, as reported by Mildbraed (1911), probably also belongs to A. porphyrostachya . The species is not eaten by livestock according to herbarium collectors.

Distribution.

(Fig. 15 ; see also Appendix 1). Africa: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Arabian Peninsula: Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen.

General distribution.

Africa, South-West Asia and Indian subcontinent (see also full list of specimens from Asia in Appendix 1).

Figures

Figure 14. Achyranthes porphyrostachya A population in the open semi-disturbed habitat in Arusha Region, Tanzania B an indoor cultivated plant in vegetative stage (grown from seeds from Manyara Region, Tanzania) C plant in blooming stage (Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania) D fragment of the inflorescences (Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania). Photographer: A. Sukhorukov.

Figure 15. Distribution map of Achyranthes porphyrostachya.