Anisophyllea cordata Engler & von Brehmer (1917: 370)

Chen, Xin, He, Hai & Zhang, Li-Bing, 2015, A monograph of the Anisophylleaceae (Cucurbitales) with description of 18 new species of Anisophyllea, Phytotaxa 229 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

13. Anisophyllea cordata Engler & von Brehmer (1917: 370) ( Figure 25 )

Type :— CAMEROON. South : Kribi district , Beson, 45 km to the east of Grand Batanga, 22 July 1911, J. Mildbraed 6050 (lectotype HBG-510107!, here designated) .

Small trees to 10 m tall, young branches terete, robust, dark brown, shortly appressed-pilose, with ±equal internodes. Leaves dimorphic, internodes between similar types of leaves 3.5–4.5 cm, between two adjacent different types of leaves 5–7 mm; small leaves sessile, cordate, to 2.5 cm long, 2.0– 2.5 cm wide, base deeply cordate, apex acute or ±acuminate, glabrous adaxially, densely appressed-pilose abaxially at base, slightly lustrous on both surfaces, main veins 9–12, springing from base, with two inner lateral veins merged with midrib a little distance above base, all curved toward apex, prominent on both surfaces; large leaves sub-sessile, leaf blade ovate to broad-elliptic, ca. 30 cm long, 14–16 cm wide, base strongly asymmetry, cordate, apex narrowly acute to subacuminate, ca. 4 cm long, coriaceous, glabrous on both surfaces; main longitudinal veins 7–9, springing from blade base, with innermost ones merged with midrib a little distance above blade base, midrib straight, three inner lateral veins curved upwards and reaching blade apex, other veins usually disappearing at upper portion of blade margins and outermost pair of veins confluent with blade margin below middle, paler than diachyma, impressed adaxially and raised abaxially; transverse veins mostly parallel, slightly prominent adaxially and distinctly prominent abaxially; veinlets reticulate, ±equally prominent on both surfaces. Flowers and fruits unknown.

Flowering and fruiting: —Unknown.

Habitat and distribution: — In forest tract; 100–140 m. S Cameroon ( Figure 26 ) .

MONOGRAPH OF ANISOPHYLLEACEAE

Phytotaxa 229 (1) © 2015 Magnolia Press • 41 42 • Phytotaxa 229 (1) © 2015 Magnolia Press

CHEN ET AL.

Taxonomic notes: — Anisophyllea cordata has much larger leaves than all other African species. As mentioned by Engler & Bremer (1917), another known African species with relatively larger large leaves is A. cabole , which also has persistent small leaves and can easily be distinguished from A. cordata by its not heart-shaped base of both small and large leaves and by its most often narrower large leaves. However, information on the flowers and/or fruits needs further investigations. Engler (1921) described A. cordata as having style base free, clavate-thickened, up gradually attenuate, at least 3–4 times as long as wide. The holotype of A. cordata at B was possibly destroyed. We here designate an isotype (HBG-510107!) as its lectotype.

Figures

FIGURE 25. Anisophyllea cordata Engler & von Brehmer. Portion of leafy branch showing large and small leaves (J. Mildbraed 6050; lectotype, HBG-510107).

FIGURE 26. Geographical distribution of Anisophyllea cordata Engler & von Brehmer.