The genusPlumbago(Plumbaginaceae) in Ethiopia and Eritrea

Abstract

Summary The genus Plumbago has a concentration of indigenous species in eastern tropical Africa and Madagascar: nine out of a total of between twelve and twenty-five species. In the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea, Vol. 5, published in 2006, only two indigenous species were accounted for: the widespread and common P. zeylanica and a new species, P. truncata, restricted to south-western Ethiopia. The name P. truncata was not formally validated. Since then more collections and field observations of Plumbago have been made in Ethiopia: after revision of the entire material it is concluded that P. truncata is conspecific with P. dawei, known from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar, and that another tropical East African species, P. montis-elgonis, known from Kenya and Tanzania, also occurs in south-western Ethiopia. In Ethiopia the two species are restricted to areas originally covered by moist forest: P. dawei to Transitional Rain Forest and Riverine Forest, while P. montis-elgonis to the lowermost zone of...