Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 293 No. 1: 1 February 2017
Type: Monograph
Published: 2017-02-01
DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.293.1.1
Page range: 1–68
Abstract views: 34
PDF downloaded: 1

Taxonomic revision of Sabicea subgenus Anisophyllae (Ixoroideae, Rubiaceae) from Tropical Africa, with four new species

Plant Systematic and Ecology Laboratory, Higher Teachers´ Training College, University of Yaoundé I, P.O. Box 047, Yaoundé, Cameroon. Department of Plant Systematics, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Department of Plant Systematics, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany
Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium, Domein van Bouchout, BE-1860 Meise, Belgium. Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique africaine, CP 265, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Av. F. Roosevelt 50, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium.
Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium, Domein van Bouchout, BE-1860 Meise, Belgium.
Plant Systematic and Ecology Laboratory, Higher Teachers´ Training College, University of Yaoundé I, P.O. Box 047, Yaoundé, Cameroon. Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique africaine, CP 265, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Av. F. Roosevelt 50, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium. Missouri Botanical Garden, Africa & Madagascar Department, P.O. Box 299, 63166–0299, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA.
Conservation status Guineo-Congolian Region IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria Lower Guinea taxonomy Rubiaceae Sabicea tropical African flora Eudicots

Abstract

A taxonomic revision of Sabicea subgenus Anisophyllae (Rubiaceae), a group restricted to Central and East Africa, is presented here. This work, based on a study of herbarium specimens and field observations in Cameroon and Gabon, includes a survey of the morphological features of the group, a key to the species, descriptions of all the taxa, and IUCN conservation status assessments. Fifteen species are recognised, four of which are described as new (Sabicea mapiana, S. ndjoleensis, S. parmentierae, S. sciaphilantha), three former varieties are raised to species rank (S. crystallina, S. jacfelicis, S. tersifolia), and one species previously sunk into synonymy is restored (S. bequaertii). Two new infraspecific taxa are also described, Sabicea crystallina subsp. engongensis and S. sciaphilantha subsp. hirsuta. The group has its center of diversity in Gabon, where 10 of the 15 species occur, three of them being endemic to the country.