Storckiella pancheri Baill.

Nielsen, Ivan C., Labat, Jean-Noël & Munzinger, Jérôme, 2005, Synopsis of Storckiella Seem. (Fabaceae, Caesalpinioideae) with description of a new species and a new subspecies from New Caledonia, Adansonia (3) 27 (2), pp. 217-230 : 222

2. Storckiella pancheri Baill.

Adansonia 9: 205 (1869); Guillaumin , Bull. Soc. Bot. France 83: 308 (1936); Fl. Analytique et Synoptique de la Nouvelle-Calédonie: 156 (1948). — Doga pancheri (Baill.) Baum. -Bod., Syst. Fl. Neu- Caledonien 5: 77 (1989), nom. inval. — Lectotype: F. v. Mueller 11, “North end of New Caledonia, tree 18-20 feet, base of mountains, flowers yellow” ( P); paratypes F. v. Mueller 2 & 28 ( P), mounted on the same sheet as the lectotype.

This species is apparently restricted to the main island of New Caledonia. Storckiella pancheri is based on a F. VON MUELLER collection distributed from MEL which is deposited in the Paris herbarium. The original label from MEL reads: “Cassia/No 2 – North end of New Caledonia – Tree 18-20 feet /base of mountains – flowers yellow”.

According to kind information from D. MURPHY (MEL), MUELLER never visited New Caledonia, but he received specimens collected by VIEILLARD and PANCHER, which he sent on to Paris.

The sheet in Paris have three leaves without tags mounted in the upper half and an inflores-

cence tagged with no. 28 in the lower left half, and an inflorescence with a single leaf tagged no. 11 in the lower right half. The Herb. Mus. Paris label reads: “Nouvelle Calédonie / Storckiella pancheri H. Bn. / M. F. Mueller / no. 2, 28, 11”. As F. VON MUELLER no. 11 matches the original description, and has both a leaf and an inflorescence we select that as lectotype. The types of S. pancheri and S. comptonii were collected in the northern part of New Caledonia and though the F. VON MUELLER specimens are fragmentary the leaflets match those of the type of S. comptonii . The two were formerly distinguished by the form and width of the leaflets: S. pancheri with oblong or oblonglanceolate leaflets 12-16(-18) mm wide, and S. comptonii with elliptic or ovate-elliptic leaflets 20-25 mm wide. However, the lectotype and paratypes of S. pancheri have coriaceous leaflets that are between 12 and 28 mm wide, thus overlapping the size range of those of the type of S. comptonii . The collections made in the northern part of the island since then also justify that S. comptonii should be reduced to synonymy under S. pancheri as was suspected by GUILLAUMIN (1936: 308). In the northern part of the island the specimens have coriaceous leaflets with obtuse and retuse apices, as can also be observed in the types of S. comptonii and S. pancheri . In the central and southern part of the island the specimens have chartaceous to rigidly chartaceous leaflets with broadly acute, acute to acuminate apices. It has been decided to assign subspecific rank to those two entities, because they too have different habitat preferences, the former being found in scrub and open maquis, and the second both in forest, and maquis. Moreover subsp. pancheri is found in the northern part of the island, unlike subsp. acuta , which is found in the central and southern part. McKee 39369 (AAU, P), which was collected at Col d’Amos in gallery forest on shale is a 20 m tall tree with very young foliage. It is referred to subsp. pancheri with some hesitation, and might represent an intermediate form to subsp. acuta .