Coccinia barteri (Hook.f.) Keay, Kew Bull. 8: 82. 1953.

Holstein, Norbert, 2015, Monograph of Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae), PhytoKeys 54, pp. 1-166 : 65-68

3. Coccinia barteri (Hook.f.) Keay, Kew Bull. 8: 82. 1953.

Staphylosyce barteri Hook.f. in Oliv., Fl. trop. Afr. 2: 554. 1871. Physedra barteri (Hook.f.) Cogn. in A.DC. & C.DC., Monogr. Phan. 3: 525. 1881.

Coccinia barteri Type: Nigeria. Nupe [Niger State]: exact locality not specified, male, fl, C. Barter 1525 (Lectotype, designated by Jeffrey (1967: 60): K!, digital image! [K]).

Coccinia barteri Type: Equatorial Guinea. [Fernando Po] Bioko Island, female, C. Barter no.? (Syntype: K?), see Taxonomic remarks.

Coccinia macrocarpa Cogn., Bull. Jard. Bot. État Brux. 5: 113. 1915-1919. Pro parte [except E. Luja 125].

Coccinia barteri Type: D. R. Congo. Sankuru river [tributary of Kasai river], no detailed location given, on farmland and in bushland, male, fl, Jul 1904, E. Luja 205 (Lectotype, designated by Jeffrey (1967: 61): BR! [BR0000008888570, digital image: BR, JPS, photo: K!).

Coccinia barteri Type: Sankuru river [tributary of Kasai river], no detailed location given, female, fr, Nov 1903, E. Luja 125 (Syntype: BR! [BR0000008888228, digital image: BR, JPS]).

Coccinia subhastata Keraudren, Fl. Cam. 6: 131. 1967.

Coccinia barteri Type: Cameroon. South Region: Bitye, male, fl, 1917, G.L. Bates 1469 (Holotype: BM!).

Description.

Perennial climber. Stems up to 10 m, glabrous or puberulous. Petioles 1-3.5(-8.5) cm, glabrous to puberulous, adaxial side rarely with trichomes. Leaves 3.5-20 × 4-23 cm, cordate, subhastate, shallowly to deeply 3- or 5-lobate. Lobes triangulate, ovate to oblong. Margin entire with few to many teeth to serrate. Apex obtuse to acute, with apical tooth. Upper leaf surface glabrous with clear or white pustules, lower leaf surface glabrous to puberulous on main nerves, esp. towards base, with or without small dark glands. Probracts ovate to elliptical, up to 5 mm long or missing. Tendrils simple or bifid. Male flowers in few- to many-flowered racemes. Common peduncle up to 3-8 mm long, glabrous to puberulous. Pedicel <8 mm, indumentum like peduncle. Flowers without or with up to 1.5 mm long bracts. Perianth tube glabrous to puberulous. Calyx lobes 1-2.5 mm, subulate, lineal, rarely somewhat lanceolate, reflexed, spreading or erect and adpressed to corolla, sometimes seemingly fleshy. Corolla 1.1-2.4 cm, salmon, yellow to orange-yellow, lobes up to 3-10 mm. Filament column, anther head, and pollen sac color not seen. Female flowers in racemes, sometimes accompanied with a solitary flower or one solitary flower only. Peduncles and petioles in racemes like in males. Solitary female flowers with up to 1.5 cm long glabrous to puberulous pedicel. Ovary glabrous. Hypanthium glabrous to puberulous, calyx lobes and corolla as in males. Style not seen. Stigma shape not seen, more or less dark yellow. Fruit 1.5-2.5 × 1.5 cm, shortly elliptical to subglobose, unripe green with pale spots, ripe red. Seeds 5.5 × 2.5-3 × 1-1.5 mm (L/W/H), more or less symmetrically obovate, face flat to flatly lenticular.

Phenology.

Flowering time: January-June, August-November.

Distribution.

Fig. 24. Humid tropical West Africa, Angola (Cabinda, Cuanza Norte), Burundi?, C and S Cameroon, C and S Central African Republic, D. R. Congo, R. Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mozambique (Manica), S South Sudan?, Uganda (Western, Central), Rwanda?, W Tanzania, Zambia (Northern Province), Zimbabwe (Manicaland). Elevation from sea level to 1650 m. Soil preference not well known, on loam soil, on granite (J.B. Gillett 15298). ( Newtonia ) rainforest; forest margins; near open water with Pandanus candelabrum , Oxystigma mannii , and Raphia vinifera ; near river with Saba comorensis ; on border of gallery forest and Terminalia glaucescens woodland; in riverine bushes, on river islands with Alchornea cordifolia ; in fallows.

Use.

The Turumbu people mash young leaves, mixed with white argil, and put the paste onto the heads of ill children (W. Kesler 1034).

Vernacular names.

Lissongo [Mbati]: makpo (C. Tisserant ( Équipe) 2250); Twi: isamaŋ kyẽkyẽa (F.R. Irvine 2604); Turumbu: eliki e litoko (J. Louis 2253), ndombo di ilo (W. Kesler 1034)

Remarks.

Coccinia barteri is treated here in a wide sense as it contains several forms (see also Holstein and Renner 2011b). This is because data on these forms are scarce and do not unambiguously allow to refer to these as species. Therefore, the present author refrains from creating an intraspecific classification as a phylogeographic treatment and crossing experiments appear to be necessary to clarify this problematic taxon.

There are collections in Gabon that are of intermediate morphology between Coccinia barteri and Coccinia racemiflora (M.A. van Bergen 490 (WAG) = Coccinia barteri 6 in Fig. 17). Holstein and Renner (2011b) suggested that hybridization occurs between these species. Whether the hybrids are fertile or sterile is not known.

Taxonomic remarks.

Coccinia barteri (Hook.f.) Keay is type species of the genus Staphylosyce Hook.f.

Joseph Dalton Hooker mentions collections from Fernando Po [Bioko Island] and Nupe in the protologue of Coccinia barteri . He only gives the name of Barter, whose Nupe specimen is in K, but there are no Coccinia specimens by Barter from Fernando Po. However, there are two specimens collected by G. Mann (Mann N199! and N1166!) in Hooker’s herbarium (now in K). These were collected on that island, and they contain drawings that were most likely the basis for Hooker’s description of Staphylosyce barteri . Possibly, Hooker mistakenly left out Mann’s name in the protologue, whose collections contain many type specimens ( Hooker 1871).

Keay published in error Coccinea barteri [sic] in his new combination, but accepted the species as belonging to Coccinia in Hutchinson and Dalziel’s Flora of Tropical Africa (1954).

The syntypes of Coccinia macrocarpa certainly belong to different taxa. The present author concurs with Kéraudren, who placed the male specimen É. Luja 205 into the polymorphic Coccinia barteri (1967). However, the female plant É. Luja 125 is clearly not part of Coccinia . Coccinia seeds are up to 7 mm long, at the base attenuate to trun cate and with a rounded apex. In contrast, the seeds of É. Luja 125 are subquadratic as Jeffrey already pointed out on the type specimen. A placement in Momordica by Jeffrey (on the sheet) seems to be correct, whether this is Momordica multiflora Hook.f. (1871) as identified by Jeffrey or Momordica parvifolia Cogn. (1916) as identified by Kéraudren is beyond the present author's knowledge.

Coccinia subhastata was described under the assumption that Coccinia barteri has long calyx lobes, as it can be seen in Flore du Cameroun ( Kéraudren 1967). Monique Kéraudren in her research on western Central African Cucurbitaceae ( Kéraudren-Aymonin 1975a; Kéraudren 1967) treated Coccinia / Physedra barteri and Physedra heterophylla as synonymous. However, she confused the long subulate calyx lobes of Physedra heterophylla as a character for Coccinia barteri , describing a specimen with short calyx lobes and flowers in long racemes as a new species, Coccinia subhastata Keraudren. She also described several differences of Coccinia subhastata to Coccinia barteri , which are not supported when carefully examined. Coccinia subhastata should only have simple tendrils, but the holotype of Coccinia subhastata also has a bifid tendril. Furthermore, the Coccinia barteri lectotype C. Barter 1525 has a subhastate leaf and simple tendrils. The description of Coccinia subhastata thus is thus wrong and the species is a synonym of Coccinia barteri , as it has been pointed out by Holstein and Renner (2010). In addition to the confusion of Coccinia heterophylla and Coccinia barteri , Kéraudren separated the western Central African specimens with few-flowered racemes as Coccinia keayana R.Fern. ( Kéraudren 1967). Coccinia keayana , however, does in fact not occur in this region but only in West Africa, and her Coccinia keayana specimens from Cameroon belong to the polymorphic Coccinia barteri .

Specimens examined.

(Selection, in total: 153) Angola. Cuanza Norte: Cazengo municipality, near Agricultural Station Cazengo, J. Gossweiler 5492 (COI, LISU), and 5507 (LISU). Benin. Atlantique: Allada commune, Dahounkpa (Niaouli), 6°44'N, 2°07'E, A. Akoègninou & F. Bada 2992 (WAG [WAG0314946]). Cameroon. South Region: Bipinde [Bipindi], G.A. Zenker 1657 (E, G (4), HBG, P [P05621189], P [P05621192], W, Z). Central African Republic. Lobaye: Boukoko, C. Tisserant ( Équipe) 2176 (BM, P [P05620598], P [P05621175]). D. R. Congo. Katanga: [Haut Katanga district], 40 km on road from Lubumbashi to Sakanja, A. Schmitz 4465 (EA (2), WAG [WAG0225507], WAG [WAG0225508]). Equatorial Guinea. Bioko Norte: Malabo-Punta Hermosa km 9, 32NMK8114, F.J. Fernández Casas 12077 (BM, MA n.v., MO, WAG [WAG0069018]). Gabon. Haut-Ogooué: 21 km on road from Okonja to Akiéni, 0°45.84'S, 13°47.01'E, J.J. Wieringa et al. 6387 (M, WAG [WAG0250956], WAG [WAG0250957], WAG [WAG0250958]). Ghana. Volta: Agumatsa Wildlife Sanctuary, at town Wli-Agorviefe, W of Park Guard HQ, 7°06'46"N, 0°35'25"E, H.H. Schmidt et al. 2192 (K, MO). Guinea. Nzérékoré: [Beyla préfecture], Bola [Boola], Famondou [Famodougou], 8.48068°N 8.70129°W, E. Achigan-Dako 07 NIA 899 (GAT (3)). Ivory Coast. Lagunes: Abidjan, Banco Forest Reserve, in marshy valley, near the entrance, J. de Koning 6144B (WAG [WAG0099439]). Nigeria. Rivers: Old GRA [Government reservation area], Port Harcourt, B.E. Okoli 150 (IFE (cited and picture of plant in Okoli 1984)). R. Congo. Sangha: 36.89 km E-SE Bomassa, 2°11.85'N, 16°31.10'E, S.T. Ndolo Ebika 401 (E [E00486113]). Sierra Leone. Kono: Tingi Mts, top of E ridge, J.K. Morton & D. Gledhill SL1886 (WAG [WAG0225480], WAG [WAG0225481]). Tanzania. Kigoma: Kigoma Rural District, Gombe Stream National Park, Mitumba Valley, research staff houses, 4°39'11"S, 29°38'09"E, G. Gobbo et al. 471 (MO). Zimbabwe. Manicaland: Chirinda Forest, B. Goldsmith 39/62 (COI, K, NY).