Sabdariffa hispidissima (Griff.) R.L.Barrett & M.M.Hanes, 2025

Barrett, Russell L., Yoshikawa, Vania Nobuko, McLay, Todd G. B., Duarte, Marília Cristina, Mwachala, Geoffrey & Hanes, Margaret M., 2025, Reinstatement of Sabdariffa and new combinations to support a monophyletic concept of Hibiscus (Malvaceae: Hibisceae), Australian Systematic Botany 38 (3), pp. 1-97 : 56

Sabdariffa hispidissima (Griff.) R.L.Barrett & M.M.Hanes , comb. nov.

( Fig. 19 a, b .)

Hibiscus hispidissimus Griff., Not. Pl. Asiat. 4: 521 (1854), non A. Chev. (1940). Type citation: ‘ Mergue. [ Myanmar: Tenasserim Province, Mergui Archipelago] Ad littoram Ins. Kully Gewen , iner gramina: Oct. 1834. [Griffith].’ Type: India : Kerala, Thanneerpandal , near town of Badagara , A . K . Pradeep 5008 (neo, designated by A. K.Pradeep & V. V.Sivarajan, Taxon 40: 637 (1991): K; isoneo: CALI) .

Hibiscus furcatus Roxb. ex DC., Prodr. 1: 449 (1824), nom. illeg., non Willd. (1809), nec Morotzi (1846), nec Mast. (1868), nec Bahadur, Dayal & Raturi (1970); Furcaria roxburghii Kostel., Allg. Med. Pharm. Fl. 5: 1856 (1836). Type citation: in Bengalo. (v.s.). Type: India : Bengal, s. dat., W. Roxburgh s.n. (BM 013730221).

Hibiscus aculeatus Roxb., Fl. Ind. 3rd edn, 206 (1832), nom. illeg., non Walter (1788), nec Bahadur, Dayal & Raturi (1970), nom. illeg. Type citation: ‘I have only observed this in my garden, where it must have been brought from some other place amongst other seeds.’ Type: India : Icones Roxburghianae no. 356 (K).

Hibiscus hamatus Harv. in W.H.Harvey & O.W.Sonder (eds), Fl. Cap. 1: 177 (1860), nom. inval., pro syn.

Descriptions and illustrations

Roxburgh (1832, p. 204); Wight and Arnott (1834, p. 48); Griffith (1854, p. 521); Dalzell and Gibson (1861, p. 19); Masters (1874, p. 335); Prain (1903, p. 267); Gamble (1915, p. 97); Rakshit and Kundu (1970, p. 161); Saldanha and Nicolson (1976, p. 151); Matthew (1983, p. 113); Paul and Nayar (1980, p. 194); Paul and Nayar (1988, pp. 123–124); Pradeep and Sivarajan (1991, p. 634, fig. 1–6); Paul (1993, pp. 323–324); Sivarajan and Pradeep (1996, pp. 106–110, fig. 34, 35); Philcox (1997, pp. 294–295); Wilson 1999, pp. 55–56).

Notes

Historical applications of the names Hibiscus furcatus Roxb. ex DC. and H. aculeatus Roxb. are greatly confused (e.g. by Bahadur et al. 1970) but were clarified by Pradeep and Sivarajan (1991). A problem has been identified here in that Furcaria roxburghii Kostel. is a validly published replacement name for the greatly confused Hibiscus furcatus Roxb. ex DC. This appears to be the earliest name available at species rank for this taxon. The name was presumably overlooked as a valid name as the generic combination Furcaria proposed by Kosteletzky (1836) was an illegitimate homonym, but this does not invalidate the species combination as there was a valid genus Furcaria ( Desvaux 1827) . However, we refrain from adopting this epithet due to the great confusion surrounding Roxburgh’s concept of ‘ Hibiscus furcatus ’, and we propose conservation of the name Hibiscus hispidissimus Griff. as a more stable nomenclatural solution.

Distribution

Native to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India , Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Introduced in Sudan and possibly introduced in Nepal.

Figures

Fig. 19. (a, b) Sabdariffa hispidissima. Photographs by Dinesh Valke, iNaturalist: 82837240; iNaturalist: 91826464, CC BY-SA. (c, d) Sabdariffa inimica. Photographs by Ben Newham, iNaturalist: 119526814, ©. (e, f) Sabdariffa kenneallyi. Photographs by Russell Barrett, NW Kimberley.