Rubus, 2021

Beek, Abraham Van De, 2021, Rubi Capenses: a further contribution to the knowledge of the genus Rubus (Rosaceae) in South Africa, Phytotaxa 515 (1), pp. 1-71 : 20

Series Apetali A.Beek ser. nov.

Type:— Rubus apetalus Poiret (1804: 242)

Synonym:— Rubus subsect. Apetali Discolores Gustafsson (1934: 9 , 50), nom. inval.

Diagnosis: —Petals absent or very small; leaves abaxially soft hairy or grey tomentose.

Notes: —Several authors mention the occurrence of R. apetalus in South Africa. Sochor (2019) indicates a distribution from Somerset-East to Tzaneen. A specimen from the Katrivier region was collected by Ecklon & Zeyher (Enumeratio 1707) as ‘ R. rigidus ?’. Specimens annotated as such are conserved in BREM and NBG. There is no doubt that it is the same taxon that Sochor (2019), following earlier authors (e.g. Focke 1911), identified as R. apetalus . Gustafsson (1934) does not claim the species for South Africa. He only mentions the similar R. adolfi-friedericii Engler (1911: 223) from Transvaal and he supposes this might also occur more to the south.

For identifying the correct name of the South African specimens, original material of the previously proposed names had to be consulted. Because there are several other converging taxa in the eastern part of Africa it was also necessary to check these as well, to see if they might be identical with the South African plants, after the claimed identity with R. apetalus appeared to be incorrect. Before publishing a new name all possible correct names must be excluded. Consequently a more detailed discussion of these names is overdue.

There are several names of taxa that have been associated with R. apetalus [see e.g. Quattrocchi 1999, 2012, The Plant List (http://www.theplantlist.org/), Plants of the World (http://powo.science.kew.org/), World Flora Online (http://www.worldfloraonline.org/), herbarium collection P]. The most relevant are R. borbonicus Persoon (1806: 51) , R. madagascarius Gustafsson (1934: 50) , R. quartinianus Richard (1847: 257) , R. exsuccus Steudel ex Richard (1847: 256) , R. inedulis Rolfe in Stapf et al. (1906: 514), R. adolfi-friedericii , and R. ecklonii . These are discussed separately below.