BOERHAVIA elegans Choisy [family NYCTAGINACEAE]

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1996) Author: CHRISTOPHER WHITEHOUSE
Names
BOERHAVIA elegans Choisy [family NYCTAGINACEAE], in DC., Prodr. 13(2): 453 (1849); Baker & C.H. Wright in F.T.A. 6(1): 3 (1909), excl. specim.; F.P.S. 1: 151 (1950); Thulin in Fl. Somalia 1: 171 (1993). Type: Saudi Arabia, near Jeddah, Schimper 744 (P, holo., microfiche!, BM, GH, L, LE, NY, P, US, iso.)
BOERHAVIA rubicunda Steud. [family NYCTAGINACEAE], Nom. Bot., ed. 2, 1: 213 (1840), nom. nud.; Fosberg in Smithson. Contr. Bot. 39: 13 (1978)
BOERHAVIA repens (Choisy) Asch. & Schweinf. var. elegans [family NYCTAGINACEAE], Beitr. Fl. Aethiop.: 169 (1867)
BOERHAVIA elegans Boiss. var. stenophylla [family NYCTAGINACEAE], Fl. Orient. 4: 1046 (1879). Lectotype, chosen by Fosberg (1978): Pakistan, Baluchistan, 1851, Stocks (G-BOISS, lecto.)
BOERHAVIA rubicunda (Boiss.) Fosberg var. stenophylla [family NYCTAGINACEAE], in Smithson. Contr. Bot. 39: 14 (1978)
BOERHAVIA elegans (Boiss.) A.G. Mill. subsp. stenophylla [family NYCTAGINACEAE], in Edin. Journ. Bot. 51: 40, fig. 5 (1994)
Information
Perennial, ± erect herb up to 1 m. Stems fleshy, becoming woody towards the base, puberulous, the nodes swollen. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 1–5×0.3–1 cm., the base cuneate, the apex rounded to acute, often clustered on short shoots, puberulous. Inflorescence a large diffuse terminal panicle, the flowers solitary on very slender peduncles appearing as pedicels ± 6–20 mm. long; branches glabrescent, often glaucous. Perianth 1.5–4.5 mm. long; upper portion white to pink, 0.5–3.5 mm. long. Anthers (2–)3, slightly exserted. Ovary 0.5–1 mm. Anthocarp narrowly ± ellipsoid, 3–4 mm.×1–1.5 mm., 5-ribbed, rounded at the apex, ± glabrous on the ridges, puberulous to glabrescent in the grooves.
Range
DISTR. K 1
Altitude range
200–500 m.
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier Province Suguta valley, 10 Jan. 1956, J. Adamson 575!
Distribution (external)
; Ethiopia
Somalia
Djibouti
Arabia
Iran
Pakistan
Notes
Subspecies or var. stenophylla is not recognised here. Fosberg remarked that the two varieties were poorly separable, also the distributions of the infraspecific entities as defined by Miller and Fosberg conflict. Miller based his subspecies separation upon the original syntype from Oman (Muscat [Mascate], Aucher-Eloy 5251 (G-BOISS, BM, K!, US)), apparently unaware of Fosberg’s earlier lectotypification.
BOERHAVIA elegans Choisy [family NYCTAGINACEAE]
PDF

Related Materials