Albizia lathamii Hole (1912: 153)

Kumar, Krishnachandran Sampath, Arumugam, Senniappan & Mastakar, Vijay Kumar, 2020, Lectotypification of Albizia lathamii (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae), Phytotaxa 446 (4), pp. 260-264 : 263

Albizia lathamii Hole (1912: 153) . ( Fig.1 )

Syntypes:— INDIA: Tamil Nadu State, Tirunelveli district , s.loc., Hole s.n., April, 1911, K ; ‘ Tirunelveli and Ramnad disticts of Madras’ , 300–1200 ft., Hole 2946 ( CAL), 3631 ( K?) ; s.loc., Wight 898, s.d., CAL0000012964 ; s.loc., Wight 898 p. p., s.d., CAL0000012963 !

[N.B.: The probable duplicate of ‘ Wight 898’ at K turned out be a specimen of Tephrosia purpurea L. 1807: 329; K000848882!, with K00084883!]

Lectotype:— INDIA, Tamil Nadu State, Tinnevelly (Tirunelveli district), without precise locality, April , 1911, Hole s.n., with flowers and fruits ( K000800917 , digital image!, lectotype designated here; Fig.1 ) ; Isolectotype: Tinnevelly (Tirunelveli district), without precise locality, April, 1911, Hole 2946, with flowers and fruits, (CAL000012962, digital image!).

Distribution:—Endemic to Peninsular India (Tamil Nadu; Karnataka, Kerala, and Chhattisgarh).

Notes:— Albizia lathamii was collected by Latham from dry deciduous forests of Tirunelveli and Ramnad (Ramanathapuram) districts at low elevations (300–1,200 ft.), reported to prefer hard red soil rich in disintegrating quartzite (vide Hole, 1912: 156). The endemic legume inhabiting the lower elevations and plains of the Western Ghats extends its distribution to the neighbouring districts in Tamil Nadu [MH: Sirumalai hills, Dindigul district (earlier Madurai dt.), 266 m, K Subramanyam 5352, 13.02.1958; Bodi range, Theni distirct (earlier Madurai dt.), 500 m, K M Sebastine 12904, 15.9.1961]; the recent collection in Tamil Nadu was made by E Vajravelu (MH: 33971, 23.3.1970) from the Western Ghats at Puliyankudi, near Courtallum, Tenkasi district (earlier Tirunelveli dt.) at 250 m altitude and reported it as common. The endemic legume which is considered Critically Endangered. ( Sajeev & Sasidharan 1998, Sasidharan 2006, Rivers et al. 2015) was recently found distributed in the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala ( Sajeev & Sasidharan 1998), and from the southern Western Ghats of Karnataka ( Singh 1988), and also from Chhattisgarh (earlier part of Madhya Pradesh; Tiwari 1979, cited in Kumar & Sane 2003). The current status of the endemic species needs to be determined through intensive field surveys in the southern Western and Eastern Ghats and the extant populations must be regularly monitored besides initiating ex situ conservation measures to protect this Critically Endangered endemic legume species.

Figures

FIGURE 1. The Lectotype of Albizia lathamii Hole in Kew Herbarium (K000800917). [© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Reproduced with the consent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew].