A new species of Orthosiphon (Lamiaceae) from Angola
Author
Paton, Alan
text
Biodiversity Data Journal
2014
2
1162
1162
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1162
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1162
1314-2828-2-1162
Orthosiphon cinereus A.J.Paton
sp. nov.
Materials
Type status:
Holotype
. Occurrence: recordedBy:
G. Barbosa; F.Moreno 9730
; Location: country:
Angola
; stateProvince: Huila; verbatimLocality: Tchivinguiro, picada da Banja; Event: year: 1961; month: 12; day: 21; Record Level: collectionID: urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:15867; institutionCode:
K
; source: http://specimens.kew.org/herbarium/K001057489
Type status:
Isotype
. Occurrence: recordedBy:
G. Barbosa; F.Moreno 9730
; Location: country:
Angola
; stateProvince: Huila; verbatimLocality: Tchivinguiro, picada da Banja; Event: year: 1961; month: 12; day: 21; Record Level: collectionID: urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:14498; institutionCode:
COI
Type status:
Isotype
. Occurrence: recordedBy:
G. Barbosa; F.Moreno 9730
; Location: country:
Angola
; stateProvince: Huila; verbatimLocality: Tchivinguiro, picada da Banja; Event: year: 1961; month: 12; day: 21; Record Level: collectionID: urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:15078; institutionCode:
LISC
Type status:
Other material
. Occurrence: recordedBy:
R. Deschamps; F. Murta; M. Da Silva 1183
; Location: country:
Angola
; stateProvince: Huila; verbatimLocality: Serra do Bruco, pres de
Sa
da Bandeira; verbatimElevation: 1610 m; verbatimLatitude:
15°09'S
; verbatimLongitude:
13°16'E
; Event: year: 1972; month: 2; day: 21; Record Level: collectionID: urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:15078; institutionCode:
LISC
Type status:
Other material
. Occurrence: recordedBy:
Centro de
Botanica
da Junta de
Investigacoes
do Ultramar, ex
Herbario
Missao
de Huilla 313
; Location: country:
Angola
; stateProvince: Huila; verbatimLocality: Without locality; Record Level: collectionID: urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:15078; institutionCode:
LISC
Type status:
Other material
. Occurrence: recordedBy:
H. H. Johnston s.n.
; Location: country:
Angola
; verbatimLocality: Without Locality; Event: year: 1883; month: 9; Record Level: institutionCode:
K
; collectionCode:
urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:15867
; source: http://specimens.kew.org/herbarium/K000938398
Description
Perennial subshrub 1.2-2 m tall. Stems quadrangular, pubescent, more densely so at nodes with eglandular, spreading or retrorse hairs and reddish sessile glands; inflorescence axis also with shorter glandular hairs; young shoots tomentose. Leaves petiolate; blades paler beneath, ovate, 50-120 mm long; 25-40 mm broad, shallowly serrate, base rounded to cuneate, sometimes asymmetric, pubescent with red sessile glands, grey tomentose beneath when young; petioles 8-15 mm long. Inflorescence terminal, branched at base, lax; verticils 2-6-flowered, 5-10 mm apart; bracts inconspicuous, soon deciduous; pedicels 4-5 mm long, spreading, forming a right angle with the calyx. Calyx deflexed, 4 mm long at anthesis, pubescent with reddish sessile glands; fruiting calyx 7 mm long; posterior lip erect; lateral lobes of anterior lip deltoid with posterior margin extended towards posterior lip; median lobes of anterior lip lanceolate, subulate at apex; longer than the lateral lobes. Corolla usually deflexed, pinkish, 10 mm long; tube 7 mm long, straight, dilating slightly towards throat; anterior lip cucullate enclosing stamens. Stamens 4, declinate, enclosed within the anterior lip; posterior pair inappendiculate, glabrous, adnate to the corolla above the midpoint of the tube; anterior pair glabrous, adnating nearer throat, anthers dorsifixed, synthecous. Disk 4-lobed, with anterior lobe larger. Ovary glabrous, deeply 4-lobed; style gynobasic, capitate, branches rounded, equal, adpressed. Nutlets brown, obovate with a small basal scar, minutely tuberculed, producing a small amount of mucilage when wet. Fig. 1.
Diagnosis
Differs from all other African species of
Orthosiphon
except
Orthosiphon thymiflorus
(Roth) Sleesen in being a shrub rather than a suffrutex sprouting annual stems, or an annual herb. Differs from
Orthosiphon thymiflorus
in being larger and more erect, 1.2-2 m tall, rather than straggling to 0.2-1.2 m tall; and with longer larger discolorous leaves, 50-120 mm long, and greyish tomentose beneath, rather than 10-40 mm long and sparsely pubescent. The flowers of
Orthosiphon cinereus
are also more strongly deflexed.
Etymology
Named after the grey tomentose indumentum of the stems and abaxial leaf surfaces.
Distribution
Endemic to Angola.
Ecology
Damp area in forest; 1610-1700 m, alt.
Conservation
No recent gatherings of this species have been collected and the specimens mostly lack precise localities. This species is best viewed as data deficient.
Taxon discussion
This is a distinctive, easily recognized species, differing from the most large-leaved specimens of
Orthosiphon thymiflorus
which lack the discolous, greyish leaf indumentum and have spreading rather than deflexed flowers.
Orthosiphon thymiflorus
is found throughout tropical Africa and the large leaf size seen in specimens similar to the type of
Orthosiphon longipes
Baker represent an extreme of the variation Fig. 2.
Orthosiphon longipes
was placed in synonymy of
Orthosiphon thymiflorus
in
Paton et al. (2013)
. The shrubby habit is seen in Asia and Madagascar
Orthosiphon
,
Orthosiphon aristatus
(Blume) Miq. and
Orthosiphon adenocaulis
A.J.Paton & Hedge being respective examples and in
Orthosiphon americanus
Harley & A.J.Paton from Colombia, the only New World member of the genus. However, the species in Africa are mainly suffrutices with annual stems being produced from woody rootstocks. The little habitat information available from the specimens of
Orthosiphon cinereus
suggests that the species occupies a wetter forest than the seasonally dry forest habitat of
Orthosiphon thymiflorus
and other Angolan species.