Commelina mascarenica (Commelinaceae): an overlooked Malagasy species in Africa Author Faden, Robert B. text Adansonia 2008 3 30 1 47 55 journal article 10.5281/zenodo.5190388 1639-4798 5190388 COMMELINA MASCARENICA IN AFRICA The plant that would prove to be C. mascarenica was first recognized in Africa as a distinct species in Kenya ( Faden 1974 ). Because no name could be found for it, the species was designated as “ Commelina sp. D ”. No name had yet been discovered 20 years later, so the same designation was used in Faden (1994) . This species was recognized from Somalia in Faden (1995) , where it was called “ Commelina sp. #5”. The identification of Commelina sp. D and Commelina sp. #5 as C. mascarenica happened as a result of a study that I began in 2000 of an apparently undescribed species of Commelina from coastal and subcoastal Kenya and Tanzania . That species (Faden in press) also has elongate, smooth seeds, so it became necessary to determine whether it might actually be C. mascarenica . I had not studied that species before, so in March 2002 , in a loan from the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (P) to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K), I examined 14 of the 15 collections – all except Perrier de la Bâthie 9018 , which was not sent – that were cited as C. mascarenica in Flore de Madagascar ( Perrier de la Bâthie 1938 ). Thirteen specimens appeared to belong to a species that significantly differed from my new East African species. The fourteenth specimen, Bojer s.n. , was a mixed collection, one part of which – designated by Perrier de la Bâthie (1938) as “ Bojer B ” – was indeed my new East African Commelina species , and was not conspecific with the other 13 collections. The other part of the Bojer collection, “ Bojer A ”, belonged to an unrelated species, C. lyallii C.B.Clarke. The 13 remaining collections from Madagascar and the Comoro Islands that were treated by Perrier de la Bâthie (1936 , 1938 ) as C. mascarenica were recognized as conspecific with my Commelina sp. D and Commelina sp. #5 because some of them, e.g., Decary 791 (P) from the Comoro Islands , had mature seeds that were identical to those of the African plants. However, because I now had evidence that my putative new species also occurred in Madagascar , it became necessary to examine the type of C. mascarenica , in order to determine to which species the name should be applied. In August 2002 , I was able to study the type of C. mascarenica , sent on loan to Kew from G. Although the type specimen was rather scrappy,and the capsule and seeds in the packet were immature, I had no doubt that this was same species as the 13 collections examined from P that were cited as C. mascarenica in Flore de Madagascar and also matched African Commelina sp. D and Commelina sp. #5. Therefore the African plants were C. mascarenica too. The first reference to C. mascarenica in Africa was by Faden (2006) , in an appendix to the Flora of Somalia . The species name was applied to a previously unnamed species ( Commelina sp. #5) and the species was noted to also occur in Kenya , Tanzania , Mozambique , Comoro Islands and Madagascar .