Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1976) Author: B. VERDCOURT
Names
TRIAINOLEPIS africana (Vatke) Verdc. subsp. hildebrandtii [family RUBIACEAE], in K.B. 30: 282 (1975). Type: Zanzibar I., Hildebrandt 1126 (B, holo. †, K, iso.!)
TRIAINOLEPIS hildebrandtii Vatke [family RUBIACEAE], in Oest. Bot. Zeitschr. 25: 230 (1875); Hiern in F.T.A. 3: 219 (1877); T.T.C.L.: 533 (1949); Bremek. in Proc. K. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., ser. C, 59: 11 (1956); K.T.S.: 475 (1961)
Dirichletia leucophlebia Bak. [family RUBIACEAE], in J.L.S. 25: 321 (1890). Type: NW. Madagascar, Baron[5777] (K, holo.!)
Psathura fryeri Hemsl. [family RUBIACEAE], in J.B. 54, Suppl. 2: 20 (1916). Type: Aldabra, Fryer 44 (K, holo.!)
Triainolepis fryeri (Hemsl.) Bremek. [family RUBIACEAE], in Proc. K. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., ser. C, 59: 12 (1956)
Triainolepis fryeri Bremek. var. latifolia [family RUBIACEAE], in Proc. K. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., ser. C, 59: 13 (1956). Type: Comoro Is., Grande Comore, Humblot 41 (P, holo.)
Distribution
KENYA Kwale District 19.2 km. S. of Mombasa, Twiga, 22 Jan. 1964, Verdcourt 3961!KENYA Mombasa District Likoni Beach, Dec. 1956, Ossent 242!KENYA Kilifi District Malindi, June 1962, Tweedie 2377!TANZANIA Pangani District Msubugwe Forest, 4 Mar. 1956, Tanner 2531!TANZANIA Uzaramo District Dar es Salaam, 27 Aug. 1926, Peter 46071!TANZANIA Rufiji District Mafia I., Jibondo I., 25 Sept. 1937, Greenway 5318!TANZANIA Zanzibar I., Mangapwani, 24 Jan. 1929, Greenway 1144! & Chwaka, 28 July 1959, Faulkner 2316! &TANZANIA Pemba I., Madunga, 25 Oct. 1929, Vaughan 863!
Notes
This subspecies, curiously, has been found far inland at Mpika in Zambia and by Lake Malawi [Nyasa] at Nkata and Monkey Bays, a rather strange distribution for such a very characteristic littoral shrub. The Mpika plant is stated to be a tree to 6 m. and the Lake Malawi specimens are shrubs or trees 2.4–6 m. tall; there does not, however, seem to be any reason for separating them as a distinct taxon. Neither does there seem to be any valid reason for separating T. fryeri; those given by Bremekamp are highly technical and minute differences in the putamen structure. Hemsley himself later annotated the specimens he had originally called Psathura fryeri as Triainolepis hildebrandtii. The “cordons” which Bremekamp claims to be characteristic of T. fryeri and T. africana can also be found in some specimens of undoubted T. hildebrandtii.