Two newly recorded species of Indigofera(Fabaceae) in China

Abstract

This paper reports two newly recorded species from China, namely Indigofera caloneura with 1-foliolate leaves from Yunnan and I. cordifolia with simple leaves from Guangdong. There are another three species with simple leaves of Indigofera in China. Based on the microscopic observation of specimens, morphological characters which include habit, stem, leaf shape and size, indumentum, stipule and stipel, raceme, corolla color, standard shape and indumentum, anther, pod shape and size, and seed number per pod etc. in the five species are described and compared among one another. The five most important characters are chosen to discuss for taxonomic treatment. Key words Indigofera, Indigofera caloneura, Indigofera cordifolia, Fabaceae, new record, Guangdong, Yunnan, China. The genus Indigofera L. of the legume family (Fabaceae) is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. In the most recent treatment 81 species are distributed in China (Fang & Zheng, 1994), of which three have simple or 1-foliolate leaves. For Southeast Asia there are totally eight species with simple or 1-foliolate leaves recorded, namely I. brunoniana Grah. ex Wall., I. caloneura Kurz, I. cordifolia Heyne ex Roth., I. linifolia (L. f.) Retz., I. maymyoensis Sanjappa, I. minbuensis Gage, I. nummularifolia (L.) Livera ex Alston, and I. squalida Prain (de Kort & Thijsse, 1984; Sanjappa, 1985). Among them, I. linifolia, I. nummularifolia, and I. squalida have been reported in China before (Fang & Zheng, 1994). When studying this genus for Flora of China, a specimen from Xishuangbanna of Yunnan and two additional ones from Guangdong with simple leaves or 1-foliolate leaves are found belonging to I. caloneura and I. cordifolia respectively. These two species have not been recorded in China before. In order to easily distinguish these species, morphological characters in habit, stem, leaf size and shape, leaf glands, indumentum, petiole, stipule, stipel, inflorescence length, flower size and hairs, and fruit shape are observed. 1 Material and methods Morphological features are based on more than 50 herbarium specimens from CDBI, HITBC, IBSC, KUN, and PE. Microscopic characters were obtained by using stereo microscope (Zeiss Stemi 2000, Germany). Each species was represented by more than one specimens in the microscopic observations. The materials used for microscopic study are listed in Table 1. 2 Results and discussion