Callianthe insignis (Planch.) Dorr, 2025

Dorr, Laurence J., 2025, The native species of Callianthe (Malvaceae, Malvoideae) in northern South America (Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas and adjacent Brazil), PhytoKeys 260, pp. 75-95 : 75-95

2. Callianthe insignis (Planch.) Dorr comb. nov.

Fig. 2

Abutilon insigne Planch. , in Linden, Établ. Linden, Prix-courant 5: 4, 19. [Mar] 1850; Planchon, Fl. Serres Jard. Eur. 6: 41, t. 551. [6 Jun] 1850; Hooker, Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 81 [= ser. 3, 11]: t. 4840. 1855; Triana & Planchon, Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 4, 17: 184. 1862; Linden & Planchon, Pl. Columb. 1: 46. 1874 –75 [“ 1863 ”], as to name only. Type: Luxembourg [cultivated]. “ Hort. Linden ex andibus Nov. Granat. , ” s. d. (fl), N. Funck & L. J. Schlim s. n. (lectotype, here designated: MPU [ MPU 016978 as image!]) .

Abutilon igneum hort., Garden (London, 1871–1927) 14: 474, fig. 1878, sphalm pro “ insigne.”

Abutilon insigne ‘ Duc de Malakoff’ De Bosschere, Rev. Hort. Belg. Étrangère 17: 127. 1891 (“ var. Duc de Malakoff ”). Type: Not designated.

Sida insignis Planch. ex Bellair & St. - Lég., Pl. Serre 80. 1900, nom. nud., pro syn.

Type.

Based on Abutilon insigne Planch.

Distribution.

Found in the Andes of Colombia and / or Venezuela; further details wanting.

Additional material examined.

Colombia • Habitat in Andibus Columbiens , 1878 (fl), J. H. Wibbe s. n. [leg.?] ( BR [ BR 0000031103756 as image!]) .

Discussion.

When Planchon first validly published this name in a nursery catalogue distributed by Linden (1850: 4, 19), he announced that it would be illustrated that spring in the horticultural journal “ Flore des serres et jardins d’Europe ”. The index to Linden’s nursery catalogue gave an even more precise date for the promised illustration (“ voir Flore des serres, février 1850 ”). There is, however, no illustration of A. insigne in the February issue of that journal and, for whatever reasons, one did not appear until several months later in the June issue ( Planchon 1850: t. 551). Thus, while the illustration that Planchon promised may have existed when the name A. insigne first was published, it is not certain that it did exist and the plate’s status as original material is equivocal. Accordingly, the lectotype designated by Fryxell (2002: 95) is superseded here with a specimen from the Linden establishment.

Linden and Planchon (1874–1875) later cited a collection (“ Linden-Funck et Schlim, n ° 750 ”) of Abutilon insigne from “ Venezuela – Agua Obispo (prov. de Truxillo) ”, but no specimens of this collection have been located and the description of 3 - lobed leaves and the locality suggest the collection might, in fact, be the species described below as Callianthe roseangelae Dorr . In any case, apart from this collection and the Wibbe one cited above, no other wild-collected material of A. insigne has been reported or identified. It is unfortunate that the Rev. John Hermann Wibbe (1849–1878), who assembled a personal herbarium that included his own collections along with those gathered by others worldwide, elected to suppress the name of whomever collected his specimen of A. insigne and concealed precisely where it was collected.

De Bosschere (1891: 127), in discussing cultivated material of Abutilon seen in Ghent and Lièges, Belgium, recognised A. insigne ‘ Duc de Malakoff’, based on a rather trivial petal colour difference. De Bosschere wrote that his cultivar had pinkish-purple petals with purple-carmine veins, while A. insigne as described by Planchon (1850) and Morren (1855) had soft pink or white petals with purple and carmine veins. Unfortunately, the cultivar name adopted by De Bosschere (1891) had been applied by horticulturists since 1870, at least, to a mottled-leaf (virus-infected) variety of A. striatum Dicks. ex Lindl. ( Hibberd 1870) .

Fryxell in Bernal et al. (2016: 2535) did not cite wild-collected material of Abutilon insigne from Colombia, but reported that the species was cultivated in the Andes of Caldas and Cundinamarca. The voucher Fryxell cited for Cundinamaraca (Sänchez & Linares 1776, COL [ COL 000139180 as image!]), however, is not A. insigne nor is what is presumed to be Fryxell’s voucher for Caldas (i. e. de Fraume & Alvarez y Gallego 379, COL [ COL 000139181 as image!]). Both specimens can be referred to a complex of Callianthe cultivars that often are named for convenience as “ A. × hybridum ”.

Kearney (1958) wrote that Abutilon insigne occurred in Venezuela, but did not cite a voucher. Dorr in Hokche et al. (2008) reported that A. insigne occurred in the State of Trujillo and probably also Táchira, Venezuela. The Trujillo record was based, in part, on material described below as Callianthe roseangelae . The Táchira record was taken from Bono (1996), but Bono’s brief description (“ Flores rojas, .... ”) and stated provenance (“ Originaria de Asia Menor ”) suggest it is not this species.

Callianthe insignis is a distinctive plant with a scandent habit, rugose to slightly bullate leaf blades that are entire or faintly 3 - lobed and coriaceous, pendulous inflorescences with flowers borne on long, articulated peduncles, pale lavender or white petals with dark purple veins, petals spreading at anthesis and a slightly exserted androecium. Despite our lack of knowledge regarding wild populations, C. insignis has been in cultivation since it was first discovered ca. 175 years ago and is included in standard horticultural references as Abutilon insigne ( Bailey 1949; Bailey and Bailey 1976; Everett 1980; Huxley et al. 1992; Griffiths 1994). The species commonly known as “ Climbing Chinese lantern ” currently is available in the trade in New Zealand, at least. Both Church Gardens and Woodleigh Nursery in New Plymouth cultivate this species, which was acquired from Hollard Gardens in Tarankai (Glyn Church, pers. comm.) (Fig. 2 ). The last-named nursery no longer has records regarding how it acquired the species.

A specimen in the Meisner Herbarium ( NY [02339732]!) indicates Abutilon insigne was cultivated in Brazil as early as 1854, but more recent material from Brazil has not been seen. The source of the Meisner material is stated to have been New Granada, but whether the plant came to Brazil via Luxembourg (Linden) or directly from northern South America is unknown.

Reports of Abutilon insigne being cultivated in Costa Rica are suspect ( Standley 1937; Fryxell 2007). Vouchers were not cited and the determinations reported in these floras cannot be verified.

Figures

Figure 2. Callianthe insignis (Planch.) Dorr. A. Illustration of Abutilon insigne published in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine; B. Habit; C. Flower (Sources: A. Hooker (1855: t. 4840); B. Photograph by Glyn Church; C. Photograph courtesy of Woodleigh Nursery).