LYTHRACEAE, Wilde & Duyfjes, 2019

Wilde, W. J. J. O. de & Duyfjes, B. E. E., 2019, Three new species of Lythraceae and one new species of Stemonaceae described from Indochina, Blumea 64 (2), pp. 177-182 : 177

LYTHRACEAE

Lagerstroemia

Lagerstroemia , a tree genus, is the largest genus in Lythraceae with about 60 species in SE Asia, of which about 25 species occur in Indochina . Although the Lagerstroemia species of Indochina were revised in a precursory paper ( De Wilde & Duyfjes 2016), a previously overlooked group of a few closely related species was identified during a follow-up visit in 2018 to the Paris Herbarium. It concerned specimens filed under the name Lagerstroemia petiolaris Pierre ex Laness. , the larger part identified as such by the late Pauline Dy Phon, comprising also specimens of the recently described Lagerstroemia ruffordii T.T. Pham & Tagane ( Pham et al. 2017) , from Cambodia and Vietnam not seen by its authors. Lagerstroemia ruffordii is similar to L. petiolaris , both with comparatively small laminas with a long petiole (10 mm or more) and (sub)glabrous flowers (flower buds).Among the specimens in P with such long petioles and comparatively few-flowered inflorescences with glabrous flowers, three or four entities could be recognised, based on various characters including size and details of flowers and fruits, the characters seemingly merging into each other. This complex material needs further study, but the entity with the smallest flowers is here described as a new species, Lagerstroemia poilanei , with a variety ( var. grandis ) for specimens with considerably larger fruit. — Table 1.

1 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, section Botany, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands;

corresponding author e-mail: [e-mail].