Dracaena mannii Baker

Damen, T. H. J., Burg, W. J. van der, Wiland-Szymańska, J. & Sosef, M. S. M., 2018, Taxonomic novelties in African Dracaena (Dracaenaceae), Blumea 63 (1), pp. 31-53 : 40

14. Dracaena mannii Baker — Map 13

Dracaena mannii Baker (1874) 164. — Lectotype (designated here): Mann 2329 (lecto K ( K000255908 );isolecto A, B, K ( K000255909 , K000255910 ), P, WAG), Nigeria, River Old Calabar , 1863.

Dracaena tessmannii Engl. & K.Krause (1910) 151. — Type: Tessmann 358 (holo B (B_10_0160913); iso B (B_10_ 0160914), WAG-fragment), Equatorial Guinea, Mabungo, 21 Apr. 1908, syn. nov.

Dracaena usambarensis Engl. var. longifolia De Wild.(1905) 43. — Lectotype (designated here): Laurent & Laurent s.n. (lecto BR ( BR0000008807427 )), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lisala , 7 Jan.1904.

Distribution — Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Demo- cratic Republic of the Congo, Angola.

Map 13 Distribution of Dracaena mannii Baker.

Notes — The protologue of D. mannii mentions two collections: Mann 2329 and Thompson s.n.; Bos (1984) already se- lected Mann 2329 deposited at K as the lectotype for this name. However, this collection is composed of three sheets. Since Bos has clearly annotated sheet K000255908 as lectotype and the others as duplicates, we have herewith made his choice more explicit and limited it to a single sheet, in conformity to Art. 8.2 and 8.3 of the ICN ( McNeill et al. 2012).

Dracaena tessmannii was described from a plant with the same inflorescence and leaf shape as D. mannii . In the protologue, Engler & Krause (1910) compared D. tessmannii with D. fragrans only. We assume they probably did not see any material of D. mannii when describing this new species.

All four syntypes of D. usambarensis var. longifolia at BR are ± similar in the sense that they are composed only of leaves mounted on a sheet. They were collected at different locations on different dates. The lectotype chosen represents the only specimen with a plant description written on the label. This description is most likely used as the basis for the description in the protologue.