Coccinia mackenii Naudin ex C.Huber [sphalm. Mac-Kennii, after John M'Ken , ICN 60C.5], Cat. Print.: 5. 1865.

Holstein, Norbert, 2015, Monograph of Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae), PhytoKeys 54, pp. 1-166 : 88-91

11. Coccinia mackenii Naudin ex C.Huber [sphalm. Mac-Kennii, after John M'Ken, ICN 60C.5], Cat. Print.: 5. 1865.

Cephalandra mackenii (Naudin ex C.Huber) Naudin [sphalm. mac kennii], Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. 5: 17, ser. 5. 1866.

Coccinia mackenii Type: Cultivated. Cultivated in Paris Botanical Garden from seeds from Huber’s Garden in Olbia [ Hyères, France] who obtained the seeds from M’Ken from near Port Natal [Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa], female, fl, 1864, C.V. Naudin s.n. (Syntypes: P!, G-DC! [G00211343, digital image: G]), P [P06745731, digital image: P], P [P06745732, digital image: P].

Coccinia mackenii Type: Cultivated. Cultivated in Paris Botanical Garden from seeds from Huber’s Garden in Olbia [ Hyères, France] who obtained the seeds from M’Ken from near Port Natal [Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa], 1863, C.V. Naudin s.n. (Syntypes: P! [P06745737, digital image: P], P! [P06745739, digital image: P], P [P06745740, digital image: P]).

Coccinia mackenii Type: Cultivated. Cultivated in Huber’s Garden in Olbia [ Hyères, France] who obtained the seeds from M’Ken from near Port Natal [Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa], male and female, fl, 1864, C.V. Naudin s.n. (Lectotype, designated here: P! [P06745735, digital image: P; K neg. 2993]; isolectotypes: G-DC! [3 sheets, all G00211344, digital images: G], K! [K000542637, digital image: K], K! [K000542638, digital image: K], K (2)!, P! [P06745730, digital image: P], P! [P06745733, digital image: P]).

Coccinia palmata (Sond.) Cogn. in A.DC. & C.DC., Monogr. Phan. 3: 540. 1881. Nom. illeg. Momordica palmata E.Mey. ex Drège, Zwei pflanzengeogr. Dokum.[addition to Flora 26(2)]: 156, 159, 202. 1843. Nom. nud. Cephalandra palmata Sond. in Harv. & Sond., Fl. Cap. 2: 493. 1862.

Coccinia mackenii Type: [South Africa]. [KwaZulu-Natal]: near Port Natal [Durban; cited in l.c. p. 159], male and female, fl, fr, 7 Apr 1832, J.F. Drège s.n. (Lectotype, designated by Meeuse (1962: 96): S! [S08-12155, digital image: S], isolectotype: P! [P00748835, digital image: P]).

Coccinia mackenii Type: [South Africa]. Without location and date, male, fl, J.F. Drège s.n. (Syntypes: G! [G00226835, digital image: G], HBG! [HBG506427], K! [K000313198, digital image: K], K! [K000313199, digital image: K], L!, P! [P00748833, digital image: P], P!, PRC!, W! [W 0026939, digital image: WU]).

Coccinia mackenii Type: [South Africa]. [KwaZulu-Natal]: Omsamculo [Umzimkulu], between shrubs and thickets, near river mouth, female, fr, 5 Mar 1832, J.F. Drège 4637 (Syntype: P! [P00748834, digital image: P])

Coccinia dinteri André, Rev. hort. [Paris] 72: 276. 1900.

Coccinia mackenii Type: Unnumbered plate in l.c.

Description.

Perennial climber or creeper. Stems up to 9.5 m, glabrous. Petioles 0.7-11 cm long, glabrous or with thin trichomes. Leaves 3-13.5 × 3-15.5 cm, shallowly to profoundly 5-lobate, in the latter case often weakly lobulate. Lobes triangulate, lanceolate, ovate to obovate. Margin smooth, dentate, sometimes serrate to lobulate, esp. towards the apex. Apex acute with final tooth. Upper leaf surface glabrous with clear to white pustules, rarely with few trichomes. Lower leaf surface glabrous or with thin, stiff or articulate trichomes, towards base usually with glands. Probracts up to 4 mm, oblong-lanceolate. Tendrils bifid, rarely simple. Male flowers solitary or ebracteate in few-flowered racemes. Common peduncle 5-6.5 cm, pedicel of flower in raceme up to 2.5 cm, pedicel of solitary flowers 6-9 cm, all glabrous, rarely with long trichomes. Perianth tube glabrous. Calyx lobes 1.5-6.5 mm, lineal, subulate to narrowly triangulate, when young erect, later spreading to reflexed. Corolla 1.3-2.7 cm long, cream to pale buff, corolla lobes subulate to triangulate, 0.7-1.1 cm. Filament column, anther head, and pollen sacs not seen. Female flowers one solitary. Pedicel 0.7-5 cm long, glabrous. Hypanthium glabrous, calyx and corolla like in male flowers. Ovary glabrous. Style columnar, color not seen. Stigma bulging, color not seen. Fruits elliptical to oblong, c. 10 × 2-2.5 cm. Unripe green with white mottling, ripe red-orange to red, sometimes? with white mottling. Seeds 6-7 × 4-4.5 × 1.5 mm (L/W/H), slightly asymmetrically obovate, face flatly lenticular.

Phenology.

Flowering time: January-April, July, November, December.

Distribution.

Fig. 30. South Africa (E Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo), Swaziland. Elevation sea level to 1750 m. Clay, Berea red sand, sandstone, quartzite, poorly drained soils. Afromontane forests, coastal forests, littoral forests, forest margins, sometimes grassland. In frost-free areas ( Meeuse 1962).

Use.

Leaves and fruits are eaten by Tsonga people ( Shackleton et al. 1998).

Vernacular names.

Xitsonga: Gomo, XipapaXipapana ( Shackleton et al. 1998).

Remarks.

Some collections with deeply lobate leaves and short petioles resemble the closely related Coccinia quinqueloba , and some Coccinia quinqueloba individuals have long petioles (C.V. Naudin s.n. 1863, C.V. Naudin s.n. 1863-1865, E. Retief 1215). However, Naudin (1866) reports considerable problems with seed production in interspecific crosses. It would be desirable to validate this observation.

Taxonomic remarks.

The initial designation of the Coccinia mackenii lectotype ( Holstein and Renner 2010: 440) is not valid, because it erroneously designated a female specimen from Paris Botanical Garden. However, Naudin stated that all plants from Paris Botanical Garden were male (P06745733), so the former designation was ambiguous. The new lectotype was chosen from Olbia [ Hyères] material. In contrast to Naudin’s statement, that Olbia material was female, there is a male K specimen (K000542638), from Huber’s Garden in Olbia. Eventually, this specimen is from Paris Botanical Garden but incorrectly labeled, because the lack of the opposite sex affected Naudin’s crossing experiments.

Due to an overlooked published combination Coccinia mackenii bore the illegitimate name Coccinia palmata for more than 120 years. When Wight and Arnott published Coccinia indica they also included a specimen tentatively identified as Bryonia palmata L. Although without relevance for the genus Coccinia itself, it lead to further complications. One year after Voigt’s publication of the correct combination Coccinia grandis , Roemer (1846) also recognized the apparently missing combination and that Linnaeus’ Bryonia palmata and Bryonia grandis indeed referred to different species. Roemer treated them, amongst other species, as Coccinia grandis (L.) M.Roem. (nom. illeg.) and Coccinia palmata (L.) M.Roem. In addition to the name Coccinia palmata (L.) M.Roem. another species from South Africa was described with the name Cephalandra palmata E.Mey. ex Sond. ( Harvey and Sonder 1862). Cogniaux (1881) accepted this species in Coccinia , overlooking Coccinia palmata (L.) M.Roem. He thus created an illegitimate Coccinia palmata (E.Mey. ex Sond.) Cogn., which has since been used for this species. Holstein and Renner (2010) called attention to this erroneous usage by resurrecting the correct name, Coccinia mackenii Naudin ex C.Huber.

The drawing of Coccinia dinteri in the protologue shows a bifid tendril. Since all other characters match Coccinia mackenii and the resemblance was already discussed in the protologue, it is feasible to synonymize it with that species. M. Proschowsky grew this plant in the Fabron quarter of Nice, France, but the origin of the seeds was not indicated. The label named it " Coccinia dinteri " after Moritz Kurt Dinter (in the protologue erroneously spelled as "Hurt Dinter"), who was curator in La Mortola (Giardini Botanici Hanbury, Liguria, Italy) where many South African plants were cultivated. Hence, it is reasonable to assume this origin as done by André there, which again would match Coccinia mackenii . There is a specimen in K herbarium containing only seeds and a label indicating that they were sent from Hanbury, La Mortola in 1897. A note mentions that the seeds were sown in Kew Gardens. The identification is given as Cephalandra mackenii with a question mark and a later note with the Coccinia dinteri citation. It is plausible to assume that these seeds come from the same plant stock that was used to grow and to describe Coccinia dinteri . Although the seeds fit the description of Coccinia mackenii seeds, it is not possible to use them to identify the species unambiguously.

Specimens examined.

(Selection, in total: 71) South Africa. Eastern Cape: Port St. Johns, Jan 1933, A.O.D. Mogg s.n. (L, PRE [PRE 42990], Z). Kwazulu-Natal: Durban district, Isipingo North, C.J. Ward 3747 (COI, PRE); Umzinto district, Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve, far end of Golden Valley, K. Balkwill et al. 10930 (E [E00264193], MO); Pietermaritzburg, Ferncliffe Forest, J. Bodenstein 92 (PRE); Nkandlha [Nkandla], Qudeni Forest, 5 mls [8 km] S of Qudeni P.O., L.E.W. Codd 6991 (PRE). Limpopo: near Lydenburg, near Echo Cave, R.G. Strey 3762 (M, PRE, WAG [WAG0234163]); Woodbush [Forest Reserve], 6 Aug 1925, A.O.D. Mogg s.n. (COI, L, PRE [PRE 43066], Z). Mpumalanga: Letaba district, E side of shoulder extending northwards from ridge above Weltevreden, J.C. Scheepers 1110 (M, PRE). Swaziland. Hhohho: about 20 km N of Mbabane, Ngwenya Hills, Castle peak, north slopes, B. Maguire 7553 (B [B 10 0019799], E). Manzini: Usutu Forests, R.H. Compton 32287 (PRE).