A PROPOS DE LA MORPHOLOGIE DES “LORANTHUS” D'AFRIQUE

Abstract

SUMMARY 1. —300 species of Loranthoideae have been described for Africa. Their compass covers the major part of this continent's territory. Morphologically they constitute a heterogeneous whole amongst which systematists have distinguished thirty odd taxa which SPRAGUE (Flora of Tropical Africa) called uniformly sections, and which are more readily distinguishable by the combination of a series of characteristics (cf. tab. 1).2. —Authors, however, do not agree either on what definition to give the genus « Loranthus » or on the legitimacy of this name.3. —If one compares the morphological characteristics of the African Loranthoideae with those of Loranthoideae of other continents, one is led to the conclusion that:the evolution of this subfamily has not taken place in the same manner in the different regions it inhabits;the Loranthoideae of Australasia are at the same time more closely related to those of Africa and America than the African and American Loranthoideae are to one another.One finds stages of a continuous evolution between the Loranthoideae of Oceania, Asia and Africa.The African Loranthoideae, though presenting certain peculiarities in some characters, are however related to the Indo-malayan Loranthoideae sufficiently closely to prevent their being generically separated from them completely.4. —If one compares the morphological characteristics of the different African « sections » of « Loranthus », one notices that they present very different degrees of evolution, also that it is the most primitive among them which are the most closely related to the Indo-Malayan Loranthoideae, to which they are in fact even closer than to many other African Loranthoideae. Consequently it would seem obvious to adopt, at least as far as the African and Indo-Malayan Groups are concerned, the system proposed by DANSER and thus to replace in Africa the genus « Loranthus » by a series of more restricted and better defined genera.