Mendoncia gilgiana (Lindau) Benoist

Breteler, F. J. & Wieringa, J. J., 2018, A synopsis of Mendoncia (Acanthaceae) in continental Africa including the description of two new species from western Central Africa and a new subspecies from West Africa, Blumea 63 (2), pp. 109-119 : 114

4. Mendoncia gilgiana (Lindau) Benoist — Fig. 3 ; Map 4

Mendoncia gilgiana (Lindau) Benoist (1939) 679. — Afromendoncia gilgiana Lindau (1894) 1. — Monachochlamys gilgiana (Lindau) S. Moore (1929) 227. — Type: Preuss 481 (lecto K, K000393683, designated by Magnaghi & Daniel 2017; isolecto BM*, K, P), Cameroon, between Barombi-ba-Mbu and Kake, 4 Sept. 1890.

Notes — This species is the most widespread of all continental African species, ranging from Guinea in the west eastwards to South Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania. However, it does not occur in Togo, Benin and Nigeria making its distribution disjunct. The western populations are restricted to an area in the Guinea Highlands on and around Mt Nimba and Ziama Mts, covering parts of Guinea, Liberia, to Ivory Coast in the Orumbo Boka Mt in central Ivory Coast, and to the Atewa Range in Ghana. It is widely separated from the eastern population in Cameroon and further east- and south-eastwards. Specimens from this well separated area differ also slightly in morphological aspects. These two elements together, small morphological differences and geographical separation, are the reason to distinguish both groups of populations of Mendoncia gilgiana as two different subspecies as follows:

– Bracteoles ovate-elliptic, rounded to obtuse at base, (10–) 12–15(–18) by 8–10(–15) mm; part of pedicel above attachment of bracteoles ≤ 1mm long. — Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Tanzania........................... a. subsp. gilgiana

Figures

Map 4 Distribution of Mendoncia gilgiana (Lindau) Benoist; subsp. gilgiana (●); subsp. occidentalis Breteler & Wieringa (■).

Fig. 3 a.Mendoncia gilgiana (Lindau) Benoist subsp.gilgiana. Fruit with one bracteole removed. — b. Mendoncia gilgiana (Lindau) Benoist subsp. occidentalis Breteler & Wieringa. Fruit with one bracteole removed (a: F.J. Breteler 767, WAG; b: X.M. v.d. Burgt 1290, WAG). — Drawing by Hans de Vries.