Vitex hispidissima (Seem.) Callm. & Phillipson

Phillipson, Peter B & Callmander, Martin W., 2013, A clarification of B. C. Seeman’s Malagasy species of Colea Meisn. (Bignoniaceae), Candollea 68 (1), pp. 67-71 : 68-69

Vitex hispidissima (Seem.) Callm. & Phillipson , comb. nova.

Ξ Colea hispidissima Seem. in Trans. Linn. Soc. London 23: 9. 1860.

Ξ Varengevillea hispidissima (Seem.) Baill. in Hist. Pl. 11: 116. 1892.

Lectotypus (designated here): MADAGASCAR. Prov. Toamasina: Sainte-Marie, Forêt de Tafondrou [ Tafondro ], XII.1849, Boivin 1820a ( P [ P04353039 in part: flowers]!; isolecto-: [ P04353040 ]!) . Epitypus (designated here): MADAGASCAR. Prov. Toamasina: Ambanizana, on the Masoala Peninsula , ca. 30 km SE of Maroantsetra, 15°38’S 49°58’E, 130-300 m, 12.V.1988, fl. & fr., Lowry & al. 4475 ( MO-3662349 ; isoepi-: K [ K000479825 ]!, P [ P04397908 ]!, TAN).

= Vitex congesta Oliv. in Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 23: tab. 2240. 1892.

Typus: MADAGASCAR: Northern , s.d., fl., Baron 6676 (holo-: K [ K000192803 ]!; iso-: P [ P00440364 ]!) .

Observations. – Colea hispidissima Seem. is based on a mixed collection comprising flowers of a plant hitherto known as Vitex congesta , and leaves of Rhodocolea racemosa var. humblotiana . We have located four sheets pertaining to this gathering at P. Two of the sheets bear an annotation written on the printed “ Madagascar. Voyage de M. Boivin. 1847-1852” labels in Seeman’s hand: “ Colea hispidissima . Seeman”, and both also bear annotations by Perrier de la Bâthie. One of these sheets [P00647429], bears an original label in Boivin’s hand with the information: “ Bignoniaceae . Forêt de Lafondrou. Xbre 1849. 1820. Ste Marie de Madagascar ”, the notation “ Xbre ” is shorthand for “décembre”, and “1820” is taken to be Boivin’s collection number. This sheet carries a single sterile vegetative portion of stem bearing two leaves. The second sheet annotated by Seeman [P04353039] lacks a hand-written Boivin label bearing the date, collection number and locality information, but carries both a sterile vegetative portion which is very similar to that of the first sheet, and three detached inflorescences. In addition this sheet bears a capsule containing a few fragments of dissected flowers and written on it is Baillon’s hand-written description of the flowers and a separate label bearing Baillon’s annotation “ Varengevillea hispidissima H. Bn. ”. These two sheets unquestionably represent type material on which Seeman based his description of the leaves and flowers of Colea hispidissima .

A third sheet of this collection [ P04353040 ] bears no original Boivin hand-written label, and just two capsules containing floral fragments, each with annotations by Baillon, as follows: “Nerseemania Colea hispidissima Seem ! Madag.” on one, and “ Varengevillea hispidissima H. Bn Madag !” on the other. The sheet bears no annotation by either Seeman or Perrier de la Bâthie. This, and the second sheet mentioned above also bear printed labels from Moldenke indicating them to be part of the type collection. At what time the material on the third sheet become separated from the other sheets and therefore whether or not it was actually seen by Seeman is not clear, but we agree with Moldenke’s conclusion that it represent part of the type, and conclude that the material is all part of Boivin’s collection from Tafondro numbered Boivin 1820 made in October 1849. The name “Nerseemania” written on one of the specimen capsules by Baillon does not seem to have been published, but we assume that was the name Baillon originally intended to give to his new genus. We do not know why Baillon decided to create the name Varengevillea for the genus, which we suppose commemorates the small coastal village of Varengeville-sur-Mer near Dieppe in Normandy, France since we have not found any other source for the name.

A fourth sheet [P00647448] is one of the sterile syntypes of C. purpurescens with this name written in Seeman’s hand on a printed Boivin label. It also bears a hand-written Boivin label numbered Boivin 1821/3, and the locality: “Forêt de Lafondrou», the date: “ Xbre 1849”, and also the information: “Les f(eui)lles appartiennent peut-être au no.______ et réciproquement” = “The leaves possible belong to no. ______ and vice versa”. Clearly Boivin had the intention to add the relevant number in the blank space, but he omitted to do this. Evidently the confusion with collection numbering and the mixing of flowers of a Vitex and the leaves of a Bignoniaceae started at the time of collection or soon thereafter. One might suppose that Boivin did actually collect the flowers of the Bignoniaceae and leaves of the Vitex , but that these have been lost or mislaid since the very beginning. Seeman added to the confusion by including this specimen in C. purpurescens rather than in C. hispidissima which would have seemed more reasonable. Perhaps this was simply an error with his annotation of the specimens.

MOLDENKE (1956: 132) already mentioned that the epithet hispidissima has nomenclatural priority over Vitex congesta , but failed to adopt the epithet for this species, wrongly stating it to be invalid. We designate as the lectotype of Colea hispidissima the sheet bearing flowering material of Boivin’s collection that was annotated by Seeman, and we make the necessary new combination in the genus Vitex . To avoid further confusion we have annotated the flowering material in the herbarium as Boivin 1820a and the vegetative material as Boivin 1820b. We regard V. congesta to be a synonym of V. hispidissima . The species is very distinctive with the lobes of the calyx covered by an unmistakable purple indument and with its flowers born on dense sessile cauliflorous inflorescences ( Fig. 1 ). Although not present on the type material, its large glabrous palmate leaves are also distinct. Given the fragmentary nature of the original Boivin material we choose the specimen Lowry & al. 4475 to serve as an epitype. It is well-representative of the species, with duplicates present in numerous herbaria, and it is the subject of an excellent photograph ( Fig. 1 ). This species occurs on the Masoala Peninsula and on the hills to the west of the Baie d’Antongil, and on Île Sainte-Marie.

A further minor confusion exists due to Boivin’s numbering, since another Boivin 1820 specimen exists at P bearing an original hand-written label with the number clearly marked. The specimen [ P00425804 ] is from a different locality on Ile Sainte Marie of Sesamum indicum L. ( Pedaliaceae ) collected in March 1847.

Conservation status. – With an EOO of 10,858 km 2, an AOO of 126 km 2 and 9 subpopulations, one encompassed in a protected area (Masoala), Vitex hispidissima is assigned a preliminary status of Least Concern (LC) following the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria ( IUCN, 2012) (calculation following CALLMANDER & al., 2007).

Figures

Fig. 1. – Inflorescence of a living plant of Vitex hispidissma (Seem.) Callm. & Phillipson. [Photo: P. P. Lowry II, from Lowry & al. 4340, MO]