The Distribution of Phenax sonneratii and the Identity of Pouzolzia conulifera (Urticaceae)

Abstract

Friis & Jellis (1984) revised the African species of Pouzolzia, and described two new species. One of these, P. conulifera, was based on material from Cameroon sent from Paris by R. Letouzey who also gave additional information about his collecting locality: sandy riverbanks in the western lowlands of Cameroon. When revising the Neotropical material of Pouzolzia I became aware of the similarity between our P. conulifera and Phenax sonneratii, a tropical American species. Comparison of the Cameroon plant with material of Phenax sonneratii has indeed convinced me that the two taxa are conspecific. In the diagnosis of Pouzolzia conulifera the conspicuous bracts were pointed out, and it was suggested that the fruit presumably consisted of an ovary tightly enclosed in a hard persisting perianth, features which are possible, but not representative, in Pouzolzia. In fact broad membranous bracts, each surrounding what is now generally believed to be a naked female ovary, are diagnostic characters of the Neotropical genus Phenax. P. sonneratii is known from Central America (Burger 1977), the West Indies, eastern Brazil and French Guiana (Berg 1992); it is common in the lesser Antilles and in Jamaica (Adams 1972). Throughout the range, the species is found in pastures, along roads and rivers, and in banana-, cacaoand coconut-plantations, etc. It occurs from near sea level up to c. 800 m. However, the type of P. sonneratii is said to come from India, as stated with doubt by Weddell (1856) and later without reservation by Weddell (1869). The occurrence in tropical Asia is confirmed by Hooker (1888) in a note under his account of Pouzolzia and is documented by two collections at Kew: Heifer 123 from near Calcutta, and Helfer s.n. (Kew Distr. no. 4584) from Tenasserim in Burma, both collected in 1836-38. An old record of P. sonneratii from Mauritius (Baker 1877) is based on a Commerson specimen at P (Herb. Jussieu no. 16903; photo, K), but this record has been rejected for the Flore des Mascareignes, in which it is assumed that the Commerson material almost certainly came from tropical America (Marais 1985). In this century, the species has not been reported from tropical Asia or the Mascarenes. There are, however, more recent records of the genus Phenax from Madagascar;