The Identity of Tephrosia heterophylla Vatke (Leguminosae)

Abstract

Summary. Tephrosia heterophylla Vatke is considered to be an earlier name for the species currently called T. schweinfurthii Defl. in southern Arabia and northeast tropical Africa. Synonymy, typification and a distribution map are given. Tephrosia heterophylla Vatke (1878) was described on the basis of the collection Hildebrandt 835a from 'Mt Ahl' (today's Al Mts) in northern Somalia. According to the description it is a plant with usually simple leaves and lax-flowered terminal pedunculate racemes, but the type is most probably no longer extant. Lanjouw & Stafleu (1957) state that the material from Hildebrandt's journey in 1872-74 was distributed to the herbaria in B (orig.), BM, BR, CORD, GOET, K, KIEL, L, LY, MO, P and W (abbreviations according to Holmgren, Keuken & Schofield 1981). In all these herbaria the type of T. heterophylla has been sought in vain either by me personally or at my request. In W, where the types of the species described by Vatke in this publication are normally found, the collection Hildebrandt 835 from Lasgori in northern Somalia is erroneously marked as the type of T. heterophylla. Vatke himself (1878: 214) correctly cited this collection as T. apollinea (Del.) DC. Since its original publication the name T. heterophylla has been used by four authors, but it is doubtful whether any of them saw the original material. Engler (1904: 383) reported the species from the area of Ganale River in Ethiopia apparently on the basis of an Ellenbeck collection in B which was destroyed during the war. Baker (1929: 183) only cited the type and added no further information. Schwartz (1939: 106) cited von Wissmann 1048 and 1668 from Yemen, collections which were housed in HBG before the war, but whose whereabouts thereafter are unknown. Finally, Cufodontis (1955: 281) reported T. heterophylla from Ethiopia apparently only on the basis of Engler's earlier record. No original material, or other specimens seen by previous authors using the name, is thus now available. A clue to the identity of Vatke's name was found at BM, where there is a sketchy drawing of T. heterophylla made before the war by E. G. Baker. It illustrates an Ellenbeck collection borrowed from B which was most probably the basis for Engler's earlier record (Thulin 1983: 74). This drawing matches exactly the species currently called T. schweinfurthii Deflers (1895) which occurs in NE tropical Africa and Arabia and furthermore is known from the Al Mts in Somalia. This species also, in most respects, agrees well with the original description of T. heterophylla, but there are two somewhat doubtful points. Vatke's description of the leaves and inflorescences of T. heterophylla reads respectively: 'foliis plerisque simplicibus, nunc binis conjugatis' and 'racemis