Novitates Gabonenses 91: additions to the grass flora of Gabon

Archange Boupoya,Ehoarn Bidault,Tariq Stévart,Olivier Lachenaud,Marc S.M Sosef

doi:10.5091/plecevo.2019.1559

Abstract

Background – The number of vascular plant species known to occur in Gabon rises quickly due to renewed collecting and inventory activities, often in little-known or previously uncollected areas.Methods – Herbarium material from BR, BRLU and WAG was studied.Results – Two genera (Alloteropsis, Entolasia), eleven species and one variety of grasses are recorded from Gabon for the first time (Alloteropsis paniculata, Cenchrus echinatus, Elionurus platypus, Entolasia olivacea, Eragrostis patens, Hyparrhenia diplandra var. mutica, Leersia triandra, Loudetia annua, Oryza longistaminata, Rottboellia purpurascens, Sacciolepis africana and Setaria geminata), while information on two erroneous species reports is provided. This brings the total number of grass species known to occur in Gabon to 190. Finally, new records of four rare species (Elionurus hensii, Guaduella macrostachys, Paratheria prostrata and Puelia schumanniana) are discussed.

Highlights

Gabon has a very rich botanical diversity, with an estimated number of 6100–7000 vascular plant species (Sosef et al 2006, 2017), of which 4710 were recorded in the 2006 national Checklist (Sosef et al 2006)
The presence of two species previously recorded from Gabon turned out to be erroneous and is corrected
Notes – The collection on which this new record is based, Wieringa 974, was first erroneously identified as Cenchrus biflorus Roxb., a more common African species, and as such incorporated into Sosef (1999) and Sosef et al (2006) as the

Summary

Introduction

Gabon has a very rich botanical diversity, with an estimated number of 6100–7000 vascular plant species (Sosef et al 2006, 2017), of which 4710 were recorded in the 2006 national Checklist (Sosef et al 2006). Notes – The collection on which this new record is based, Wieringa 974, was first erroneously identified as Cenchrus biflorus Roxb., a more common African species, and as such incorporated into Sosef (1999) and Sosef et al (2006) as the

Results

Conclusion