Abstract
Two new species of Fabaceae-Papilionoideae are described and illustrated. Crotalaria suffruticosa from Karul Ghat region of Maharashtra is morphologically close to C. albida and C. epunctata. C. multibracteata from Panhala region of Maharashtra resembles C. vestita. C. suffruticosa differs from C. albida and C. epunctata in its habit, leaf, inflorescence, callosity, keel type, stigma, style morphology and number of seeds/pod. To test if the new species differ from their morphologically most similar species, we measured various traits and performed a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). This analysis shows that the new species differs from similar species in gross morphology for several diagnostic traits and showed correlations between the variables or distance among groups and estimated the contribution of each character. Phylogenetic analyses were also conducted based on nuclear (ITS) and plastid (matK) markers. The analyses revealed nucleotide differences between the new species and their close allies attributing to their distinctiveness. A map and key including all species of Crotalaria from Maharashtra state are provided. Conservation status of the two new species have also been assessed.
Highlights
The Crotalarieae (Benth.) Hutch., (Fabaceae) is the largest tribe in the genistoid alliance and comprises 16 genera and 1204 species [1,2,3,4,5]
An infrageneric classification of Crotalaria was attempted by Le Roux et al [6], based on molecular phylogenetic data, which brought significant advances in the understanding of the infrageneric classification, redefined and complemented the previous classification given by Polhill in 1982 [9]
We critically compared the morphology of these specimens with the specimens of Crotalaria albida, C. epunctata and C. vestita housed in the herbarium at CAL, MH and Delhi University Herbarium (DUH)
Summary
The Crotalarieae (Benth.) Hutch., (Fabaceae) is the largest tribe in the genistoid alliance (containing 51% of genistoid legumes) and comprises 16 genera and 1204 species [1,2,3,4,5]. More than half of the diversity of the tribe belongs to the genus Crotalaria L., with 702 species [6,7]. Two new species of Crotalaria from India ecological preferences. The Genus Crotalaria is pantropical and the maximum species diversity occurs in Africa and Madagascar Stipulosae (Baker f.) M.M. le Roux & B.-E.van Wyk and Crotalaria sect. Hedriocarpae Wight & Arnott and Crotalaria respectively, whilst, sub-sections Incanae (Benth.) Bisby & Polhill and Stipulosae (Baker f.) Bisby & Polhill have been raised to sectional level [6]. We describe two new species of Crotalaria endemic to Karul Ghat and Panhala region.of Western Ghats (Maharashtra state). We conducted morphometric and phylogenetic analyses to further support the hypothesis
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