New Taxa of Leguminosae from New Guinea

Abstract

In September 1975 I was seconded for two years to the Division of Botany, Department of Forests, Papua New Guinea with the assistance of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation in order to prepare a manual of the legumes of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The time available is clearly inadequate for a thorough revision of all the genera involved since not only do these number over Ioo00 (including the many cultivated and naturalized) but some belong to such difficult groups as the Ingeae which seem permanently beset with thorny problems concerned with generic delimitation. A complete survey has been carried out at both Kew and Lae with a view to preparing a preliminary list of what species occur. It is clear that in some groups, particularly those most characteristic of the New Guinea legume flora, many new species need describing and many more are known from very incomplete material. In this present paper I am describing some of the more striking plants which have come to light during the course of the survey and of which adequate material exists in herbaria. Herbarium abbreviations follow the conventional scheme as set out in Holmgren & Keuken, Index Herbariorum ed. 6 (1974). In general I have seen all the material in K, L, and LAE and most of that in BRI and CANB. Other institutions are listed following indications on the specimens' labels.