Dracaena sanderiana Sander ex Mast. — Plate

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 : 43-44

18. Dracaena sanderiana Sander ex Mast. — Plate 7; Map 17

Dracaena sanderiana Sander ex Mast. (4 June 1892) 731. — Neotype (designated here): Gard. Chron., ser. 3, 13: 445 (1893), f. 65 (iconotype).

Dracaena poggei Engl. (10 June 1892) 478. — Lectotype (designated here): Pogge 1434 (lecto B (B_10_0160840)), Democratic Republic of the Congo, am Lomami , 30 May 1882, syn. nov.

Dracaena vanderystii De Wild. (1915) 7. — Lectotype (designated here): Vanderyst 2003 (lecto BR ( BR0000008807540 )), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lazaret S. Jules, Wombali, Aug. 1913, syn. nov.

Distribution — Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola.

Notes — Dracaena sanderiana was first exhibited by Hort. Sander in Earl’s Court (1892), and published the same year with a description, but without illustration. Original material of the plant exhibited has not been traced and has probably not been conserved. One year later, D. sanderiana was exhibited by Hort. Sander in Ghent and an illustration was published in Gard. Chron., ser. 3, vol. 13 (1893). This illustration most likely represents the same plant as originally exhibited in 1892 and is hence chosen here as the neotype.

Dracaena sanderiana is an important indoor ornamental plant ( Morsy & Elshahawy 2016) also sold under the name D. braunii and ‘Lucky Bamboo’ ( Aslam et al. 2013).According to The World

Plate 7 Iconotype Dracaena sanderiana Sander ex Mast. in Gard. Chron., ser. 3, 13: 445 (1893), f. 65.

Map 17 Distribution of Dracaena sanderiana Sander ex Mast.

Checklist of Asparagaceae ( Govaerts et al. 2017) , D. sanderiana is a synonym of D. braunii , but unfortunately no reference is given to the origin of this information. We have not found any revision or flora that underlines this statement, although Baker (1898) stated that D. sanderiana is similar to D. braunii , he surely did not regard them as conspecific.

The flowers of D. sanderiana are 5 times longer than those of D. braunii , while the leaf base is not congested as in D. braunii . Here we treat them as distinct taxa.

The inflorescence of D. poggei fits well within the range of D. sanderiana and the type material represents nothing more than a non-variegated form of D. sanderiana . Reason why we do not recognise this form as a distinct taxon. Luckily, the publication of D. sanderiana predates that of D. poggei only by a few days, so that the first can be maintained for this important ornamental.

Dracaena vanderystii was described from a plant with comparatively narrow leaves. The inflorescence fits well within the range of D. sanderiana and observations in herbaria, in the field and on cultivated material all show that leaf shape within Dracaena is highly variable. Therefore, we do not recognise this form as a distinct taxon. In his unpublished PhD thesis, Mwachala (2005) designated the same lectotype for D. vanderystii , but stated it was to be found in P. This is probably a typo which is corrected here.