Millettia pulchra var. munnarensis, Balan & Predeep, 2017

Song, Zhu-Qiu, 2023, The identities of Millettia pseudoracemosa and M. pulchra var. munnarensis (Fabaceae: Millettieae) from South India, Phytotaxa 591 (1), pp. 55-63 : 56

M. pulchra var. munnarensis

Recently, Balan et al. (2017) described another new taxon of Millettia with large and violet flowers, i.e. M. pulchra ( Bentham 1852: 248) Kurz (1873: 69) var. munnarensis Balan & Predeep (2017: 97) . Millettia pulchra is a complex species widely distributed from Northeast India to Southern China, and includes seven varieties that hardly distinguished from each other ( Wei & Pedley 2010, Song et al. 2017). The authors suggested that this new variety is strikingly different from all the other varieties of M. pulchra in having large flowers (2.8 cm long) and pods with 8–10 seeds. It is noted that the holotype and isotypes of this new variety was collected from Munnar, Idukki District, Kerala, South India (S.V. Predeep 20986, Fig. 1 : C–D), where is far away from the geographic distribution of all the other varieties of the species (see Map 1 in Balan et al. 2017), but is very near to the type locality of M. pseudoracemosa . In fact, examination of literature and specimens showed that M. pulchra var. munnarensis is quite similar to M. pseudoracemosa in morphology and distribution.

Furthermore, when comparing with all the other species of Millettia from India recorded in the literature ( Table 1 ), both M. pseudoracemosa and M. pulchra var. munnarensis cannot be distinguished from M. dura Dunn in various characters, including habit, shape, number and hairiness of leaflets, inflorescence type, size and color of flower, and shape and size of pod ( Table 2 ). Millettia dura was validly published by Dunn (1911), although he just give a simple Latin diagnosis in a key to species. One year later, Dunn (1912) provide a full Latin description and eight collections from Africa, including three gatherings collected by M. T. Dawe (# 452, Fig. 2A ; # 459; # 481, Fig. 2B ) in 1905 from Toro, western Uganda. Some seeds from one of type localities were sent by M. T. Dawe to Kew Royal Botanic Garden at that time. Based on living plants raised from these seeds at Kew, a beautiful colored drawing was published as tab. 8959 in the Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Stapf 1923; Fig. 2 : C–D). These materials are very important for understanding of this taxon, thus a specimen collected by Dawe with a better preservation, i.e. M. T. Dawe 481 (K000263154), is designated here as the lectotype.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Millettia dura Dunn.A. lectotype of M. pseudoracemosa Thoth. & S.Ravik. (S. Ravikumar 334, MH00000228, https://archive. bsi.gov.in/phanerogams-Image/en?link=MH00000228&column=szBarcode);B. isolectotype of M.pseudoracemosa Thoth.& S.Ravik.(S. Ravikumar 334, MH00000229, https://archive.bsi.gov.in/phanerogams-Image/en?link=MH00000229&column=szBarcode); C. isotype of M. pulchra var. munnarensis Balan & Predeep (S.V. Predeep 20986, K001415703); D. field photos of M. pulchra var. munnarensis Balan & Predeep (S.V. Predeep 20986, K001415710).A & B ©the Director, Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata. C & D ©copyright of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

FIGURE 2. Millettia dura Dunn. A. syntype of M. dura Dunn (M. T. Dawe 452, K000263152, http://specimens.kew.org/herbarium/ K000263152); B. lectotype of M. dura Dunn (M. T. Dawe 481, K000263154, http://specimens.kew.org/herbarium/K000263154). C. colored drawing of M. dura Dunn based on living plants at Kew raised from the seeds collected by M. T. Dawe in 1905 from one of type localities, tab. 8959 in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine published in 1923; D. voucher specimen of tab. 8959 (K001416692). ©Copyright of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.