Coccinia subsessiliflora Cogn., Bull. Jard. Bot. Etat Brux. 4(1): 225. 1914.

Holstein, Norbert, 2015, Monograph of Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae), PhytoKeys 54, pp. 1-166 : 119-121

24. Coccinia subsessiliflora Cogn., Bull. Jard. Bot. Etat Brux. 4(1): 225. 1914.

Coccinia subsessiliflora Type: D. R. Congo. [ Équateur Province]: around Likimi, male, fl, 15 Oct 1910, L.C.E. Malchair 433 (Lectotype, designated here: BR! [BR0000008887481, digital image: BR, JPS], syntype: BR! [BR0000008886835, digital image: BR, JPS]).

Coccinia sp. D in C.Jeffrey, F. T. E. A.: 70. 1967. Uganda. [Western Region]: Kigezi District [(Kanungu District/Kisoro District)], Kayonza Forest Reserve [Bwindi Forest Reserve / Impenetrable Central Forest Reserve], S. Paulo 644 (EA!, K!, MO!); [Central Region]: Mengo district, Mabira forest, M.V. Loveridge 87 (?); [Central Region]: Mabira Forest, near Kiwala, R.A. Dummer 3195 (?).

Description.

Perennial creeper or climber. Stems up to 4 m, glabrous. Petiole 2-12 cm, glabrous, sometimes with white pustules. Leaves 5.5-15 × 6.5-17.5 cm, almost to the base palmately 5-lobate. Lobes lanceolate, sometimes lobulate; tip acute, acuminate. Margin serrate-lobulate, denticulate. Upper leaf surface glabrous with clear to white pustules, rarely with few fine (up to 1.5 mm long) trichomes. Lower leaf surface glabrous, rarely with dispersed small blackish glands, rarely with tiny trichomes; sometimes nerves with white pustules. Probracts up to 1.5 mm or missing. Tendrils simple. Male flowers in glabrous, dense, compact racemes. Peduncles up to 6 mm. Pedicels up to 4 mm. Bracts 2-2.5 mm. Perianth tube glabrous. Calyx lobes 1-2 mm, subulate, triangulate to lineal, erect to reflexed. Corolla 1.2-1.3 cm, orange, pale yellow-orange, yellow, lobes c. 3 mm. Filament column, anther head, and pollen sacs not seen. Female flowers solitary or in few flowered racemes. Common peduncle up 1 cm, glabrous. Pedicel of flowers in racemes up to 4 mm. Bracts up to 2 mm or missing. Pedicel of solitary flowers up to 1.1 cm, glabrous. Hypanthium glabrous, calyx lobes and corolla like in males. Ovary glabrous. Style columnar, pale yellow. Stigma 2-lobed, yellow. Fruit 2-2.4(-7) × 1.7 cm, globose to long ovoid, unripe green with glaucous waxy cover, ripe color not known, most likely red. Seeds ≥ 4.5 × 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm (L/W/H), asymmetrically obovate, face flat.

Phenology.

Flowering time: January, April, July, August, October, December.

Distribution.

Fig. 41. Congo basin (Central African Republic, D. R. Congo). Forested mountains of NW Burundi, D. R. Congo (North Kivu, South Kivu), W Rwanda, Uganda (Western Province), South Sudan (Eastern Equatoria/Sharq al- ’Istiwa’iyah: Lotti Forest). Elevation 300-1950 m. Soil preferences unknown. Tropical rainforests. Macrolobium [= Gilbertiodendron ?] forest, swamp forest, disturbed ground in open forest.

Vernacular names.

Kihunde: mutangatanga (R. Gutzwiller 965), Lissongo [Mapti]: kanganga (C.Tisserant ( Équipe) 1103), Turumbu: ndombo (J. Louis 2709).

Taxonomic remarks.

There are two Malchair 433 specimens. As they do not contain any indication of having been separated from a single specimen, they are treated as syntypes. The two specimens do not differ in quality of the material, so the specimen with the original label was chosen to be the lectotype.

Remarks.

Collections from the eastern parts of the distribution (esp. E of the Western Rift) have longer fruits but it appears to be a variable character.

Rarely (J. Louis 5672, J. Louis 13030), the lower leaf lamina and the adaxial petiole side have short trichomes and the upper lamina has some long trichomes. These features are unusual, but the other characters match the species.

Although Coccinia subsessiliflora is nested within Coccinia barteri in the molecular tree from plastid markers (Fig. 17), it can be regarded as a proper morphospecies. The deeply lobate leaves are a distinct character, and the species is distributed only in the Congo Basin and the eastern rainforests. The present author supposes that Coccinia subsessiliflora might have evolved peripatrically in an arid period of the Pliocene/early Pleistocene period, eventually near the Kivu Mts, and Coccinia barteri populated these areas later on.

Specimens examined.

(Selection; in total: 21) Burundi. Bubanza: Bubanza, J. Lewalle 6504 (BR, EA); ibid., M. Reekmans 1477 (BR (2)). Central African Republic. Lobaye: Boukoko, C. Tisserant ( Équipe) 1103 (BM, G, P [P05620797], P [P05620798]); ibid., 2276 (BM, G, P [P05620796], P [P05620799], P [P05621163]). D.R. Congo. Équateur: [Nord-Ubangi district] Businga territoire, between Karawa and Businga, J. Lebrun 1928 (BR, P [P05620794], WAG [WAG0225403]). Maniema: between Kindu and Katakokombe, J. Lebrun 6011 (P [P05620791], WAG [WAG0225402]). North Kivu: Beni territory, Kiandolili river, Gongobotsi Camp of Albert National Park guards, H. Fredericq in Herb. G.F. de Witte 8288 (BR, M, PRE, WAG [WAG0225407]). Orientale: Haut-Uélé district, Faradje territoire, Kurukwata (Aba), P. Gerard 3564 (BR, EA, WAG [WAG0225405]); Ituri district, Mambasa territoire, Réserve de Faune à Okapi, Epulu, 1°25'N, 28°35'E, C.E.N. Ewango 2290 (M, MO); Yangambi, J. Louis 13030 (BR [BR0000008912916], BR [BR0000008913272], P [P05620795], WAG [WAG0225404]). South Sudan. Eastern Equatoria: Torit district, Lotti Forest, J.K. Jackson 3026 (K). Uganda. Western Region: [Masindi district], Bunyoro, Bujenje county, Budongo Forest, A.B. Katende K2801 (MO); ibid. T.J. Synott 1322 (EA).