Seringia

Cheek, M., Wanma, J., Jitmau, M. & Jebb, M., 2018, Seringia (Byttneriaceae / Malvaceae - Byttnerioideae) new to Southeast Asia and S. botak endangered in Indonesian New Guinea grassland and savannah, Blumea 63 (2), pp. 150-156 : 154

Seringia in New Guinea

Wilkins & Whitlock (2016) state that the first report of Keraudrenia (= Seringia ) in New Guinea appears to be that of Willis (1919: 605), followed by Green (1935: 488), Van Steenis (1987: 23) and Harden (1990: 308). “However, no specimens of these genera have been located in international herbaria” ( Wilkins & Whitlock 2016).

Currently, the main generic checklist for New Guinea is that of Höft (1992: 34, which includes Keraudrenia ). This checklist was mainly based on a card index at the LAE herbarium (LAE, Papua New Guinea) (Frodin pers. comm. to Cheek, Oct. 2017). Checks at LAE by Tiberius Jimbo (pers. comm. to Cheek. Oct. 2017) showed that the only specimens at LAE of Seringia (including Keraudrenia ) derive from Australia, not New Guinea, indicating that this was the likely source of this error. The present paper was thus thought to be the first verified, evidence-based published record of Seringia (including Keraudrenia ) in New Guinea, and in SE Asia. However, an anonymous reviewer of this paper brought to attention an earlier record based on Kanehira & Hatusima 12963, 13205 (FU) ( Merrill & Perry 1949). Collected within 4 km of the type locality, and, as with Takeuchi 15719, identified as Keraudrenia corollata , this is almost certainly the first record of Seringia from New Guinea that we now know of. However, since the herbarium of Kanehira & Hatusima is at Kyushu University, Japan (FU) (Thiers et al. continuously updated), which does not loan specimens and does not have a digital herbarium, it is not possible to confirm absolutely the identification without visiting Japan. Enquiries have been made to herbaria in the USA where it is conceivable that a duplicate may have been deposited, but so far, without a successful result.