Monanthotaxis littoralis (Bagsh. & Baker f.) Verdc.

Hoekstra, P. H., Wieringa, J. J., Maas, P. J. M. & Chatrou, L. W., 2021, Revision of the African species of Monanthotaxis (Annonaceae), Blumea 66 (2), pp. 107-221 : 174-175

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.3767/blumea.2021.66.02.01
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/565E87CB-FFCC-F915-B350-3B8BA3F424BE
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Monanthotaxis littoralis (Bagsh. & Baker f.) Verdc.
status

Treatment

45. Monanthotaxis littoralis (Bagsh. & Baker f.) Verdc. View in CoL — Fig. 12a–d View Fig ; Map 29 View Map 29

Monanthotaxis littoralis ( Bagsh. & Baker f.) Verdc. (1971b) 27. — Popowia littoralis Bagsh.& Baker f. (July 1908) 221. — Lectotype (designated here): M.T. Dawe 191 (lecto K ( K000198976 ); isolecto B100154091 ), Uganda, Central, Busiro, 1905.

Popowia dawei Diels (Aug. 1908) 328. — Lectotype (designated here): M.T. Dawe 191 (leco B ( B100154091 ); iso K000198976 ), Uganda, Central, Busiro, 1905.

Popowia bequaertii De Wild.(1922) 467. — Syntypes: J. Bequaert 6252 ( BR not seen), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kivu, Rutshuru ; J. Bequaert 2746 ( BR not seen), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Irumu ; J. Bequaert 7393 ( BR not seen), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa .

Shrub, scandent shrub or liana, to 8 m long; young branches sparsely covered with appressed hairs 0.2–0.3 mm long to glabrous; old branches blackish to dark brown. Leaves: petiole 2–6.5 mm long, 0.6–1 mm diam, slightly grooved, indument as branches; lamina elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 3.6–11.3 by 1.5– 4.5 cm, 2.1–3.5 times longer than wide, membranous, not punctate, glaucous or pale green below, above sparsely covered with erect hairs on primary vein, soon becoming glabrous, below sparsely covered with appressed short hairs 0.1–0.4 mm long on the primary vein, becoming glabrous, base rounded to slightly cuneate, with thickened black margin, apex acute, secondary veins inconspicuous 6 –12 per side, curving upwards, tertiary venation slightly reticulate, often hardly visible. Inflorescences extra-axillary or leaf-opposed, composed of solitary flowers; sympodial rachis 1–11 mm long, glabrous or sparsely covered with apressed hairs; pedicels 13–33 mm long, 0.2–0.5 mm diam, fruiting pedicels 25– 45 mm long, glabrous or sparsely covered with appressed, yellowish, short hairs; lower bract absent; upper bract near the base of the pedicel; large and leafy, circular, ovate to narrowly ovate, 3.4–20 by 4.2–14 mm, base semi-amplexicaul, outside sparsely covered with appressed hairs; flower buds globose. Flowers bisexual; sepals connate at the base and almost forming a ring, depressed ovate, c. 1.3 by 2.2 mm, apex obtuse, densely covered with appressed, yellowish hairs; receptacle 1.5–2.5 mm diam, flat; petals dull waxy yellow, pale yellow to yellow-green, 6, in two whorls, outer petals broadly elliptic-ovate, 4.3–5.4 by 4–4.8 mm, outside densely covered with yellow-brown, short hairs, inside glabrous at the base, inner petals elliptic to rhombic, 3.1–3.2 by 2.1–2.4, outside densely covered with appressed, yellow hairs, inside glabrous at the base; stamens 15, in one whorl, free, linear-obconical, c. 1.1 mm long, filaments c. 0.5 mm long, thecae latrorse, connective truncate, square to circular seen from above, glabrous, staminodes absent; carpels 10–18, narrowly subcylindric-ellipsoid, c. 1.6 by 0.4 mm, glabrous or with few hairs at the base, ovules 2 or 3, lateral, stigma elongate, c. 0.6 mm long, glabrous, bifurcate at the apex. Monocarps up to 10, pendant, orange when ripe, narrowly ellipsoid to moniliform, 8–18 by 4–6 mm, apex apiculate, apiculum to 1 mm long, stipes 2–4 mm long. Seeds 1 or 2, ellipsoid, 6–7 by 4 –5 mm, tawny, ends rounded, raphe not visible.

Distribution — Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Republic of the Congo.

Habitat & Ecology — In primary forest,secondary forest,woodland thickets, moist semi-deciduous forest and forest edges. Altitude: 754–1260 m. Flowering: March to May, July to December; fruiting: March to May, July to November.

Vernacular names — Democratic Republic of the Congo: Babua (Embaye na Kamba name) (P. Gérard 2478). Uganda: Lakolya (Lasesse name) (J.W. Purseglove 1700).

Preliminary IUCN conservation status — Near-threatened (NT). EOO: 913 461 km 2, AOO: 104 km 2. This species is known from quite some locations; however, only a very few collections have been made in protected areas, and the majority of collections are old and in areas that are currently highly degraded. Furthermore, all collections from the western part of the distribution are more than 50 years old.

Notes — 1. Monanthotaxis littoralis belongs together with M. gilletii , M. orophila and M. vulcanica to a group of species easily recognisable by the leafy bract. Monanthotaxis littoralis can be distinguished from M. gilletii by the short, appressed hairs on the stems and pedicels and by having less carpels (10–18 vs 25–28). It can be distinguished from M. orophila by having inconspicuous veins on the leaves and by having fewer stamens (15 vs 24–33). Monanthotaxis littoralis can be distinguished from M. vulcanica by the glabrous carpels, shorter stipes (2–4 mm vs 6–10 mm long) and shorter, more ellipsoid seeds (6–7 mm vs 8–15 mm).

2. The carpels of M. littoralis are glabrous or sometimes covered with a few hairs at the base; however, Bashonga ATBP 790 in Uganda has hairy carpels.

3. Popowia bequaertii was synonymised with M. littoralis by Boutique (1951a); however, we could not find any of the specimens mentioned by Boutique.

4. The 2 specimens of collection M.T. Dawe 191 arrived around the same time in the herbaria of Kew and Berlin. Bagshawe & Baker (1908) working in Kew published it as Popowia littoralis one month before Diels (1908), who worked in Berlin and published the specimen as Popowia dawei .