Entry for SESAMUM rigidum Stapf. Var. digitaloides [family PEDALIACEAE]
Entry From
Flora of Tropical Africa, Vol IV, Part 2, page 538, (1905) Author: (By O. Stapf.)
Names
SESAMUM rigidum Stapf. Var. digitaloides [family PEDALIACEAE]
SESAMUM digitaloides Welw. ex Schinz [family PEDALIACEAE], in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iv. 454; Hiern in Cat. Afr. Pl. Welw. i. 798.
SESAMUM schinzianum Engl. & Gilg [family PEDALIACEAE], in Baum, Kunene-Samb. Exped. 371, not of Aschers.
Distribution
Angola Lower Guinea Mossamedes; banks of the Rivers Giraul and Bero, near the sea-shore, Welwitsch, 1647! in dry river beds north of Mossamedes, Gossweiler, 54! near Mossamedes, Höpfner, by the Coroca River, above Garganto do Diabo, 1000 ft., Baum, 7!
Notes
I suspect that this variety represents merely a more robust state of S. rigidum. The leaves attain over 1 1/2 in. in length and over 1/4 in. in width in Gossweiler's specimen and 2 in. and 1/3 in. respectively in Baum's and Höpfner's. The longest pedicels of Gossweiler's plant are 6 lin., those of Höpfner's 8 1/2 lin. long, whilst the calyx measures up to 3 lin. and the corolla up to 1 1/2 in. in length. The tomentum is much more copious in Gossweiler's specimen than in Welwitsch, 1646, and distinctly villous in Baum, 7, and most of the soft spreading hairs are gland-tipped, which is rarely the case in typical S. rigidum. Welwitsch 1647, on the other hand, is intermediate between both. The general habit, the shape of the leaves and corollas is the same in the type and the variety.
