A New Huernia (Asclepiadaceae) from Saudi Arabia, with Notes on Related Species

Author(s): D. V. Field
Source: Kew Bulletin, Vol. 35, No. 4 (1980), pp. 753-757
Published by: Springer on behalf of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4110170
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 A new Huernia (Asclepiadaceae) from
Saudi Arabia, with notes on related species
D. V. FIELD

Summary. Huernia saudi-arabica, a new species from Saudi Arabia, is described and contr
with H. boleana and H. lodarensis.

In 1937 White and Sloane, in their monographic work on the Stapelieae, noted
that the only Huernia found outside of the African continent was a variety of
the variable H. macrocarpa (A. Rich.) Sprenger (syn. H. penzigii N. E. Br.)
occurring in Arabia-a collection made by Schweinfurth in 1889 had been
described by N. E. Brown (1895) as H. arabica and later recorded as a variety
of H. penzigii by Schwartz (1939). No additional species were recorded from
Arabia until 1963 when J. J. Lavranos described two new species, H.
marnieriana and H. hadhramautica from South Yemen. These species are closely
allied to, if not conspecific with, H. macrocarpa as suggested by Bullock (pers.
comm.). In the following year Lavranos described another species, H. lodar-
ensis, clearly distinguished by its floral characters from the other Arabian
species. Recent collections of Asclepiadaceae specimens from Saudi Arabia
by Mrs I. S. Collenette have augmented both the living and preserved
collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and in the course of naming
these collections, a reappraisal of the species of Huernia with papillose corollas
from northeast Africa as well as Arabia has led me to describe a new species.
This taxon was first discovered by Abdul Kerim Nasher who subsequently
showed it to Mrs Collenette on her visit to Abha. The closely related
Huernia erinacea Bally and H. recondita M. G. Gilbert are excluded from this
comparison because they differ constantly from the other species by their
procumbent stems and their cylindrical, rather than subulate, inner corona-
lobes.
At first sight, the plant described here as Huernia saudi-arabica with its
distinctive papillose corolla could remind one of H. boleana M. G. Gilbert
described in 1975 from an Ethiopian collection, and another apparently
comparable species from Arabia, with similar floral characters, H. lodarensis.
The latter was not referred to by Gilbert in his account of H. boleana but both
are included by L. C. Leach (1976) in his treatment of those species having
conspicuously papillose corollas. In that work Leach separates the two
species by means of the inner corona lobes, those of H. boleana being smooth-
subacute at their apices, while in H. lodarensis they are scabrous-obtuse. The
habit of H. boleana appears to be somewhat more variable than the generally
erect H. lodarensis, this being particularly evident in the pendulous or prostrate
forms sometimes found in exposed rocky situations. It is not clear, however,
even from a study of the type material preserved in spirit in Herb. Kew, why
Leach regards the stem characters as diagnostic, since both are very similar
(Fig. 1 H, Q). Both species have similar inflorescences and, except in the case
of the corona-lobes and overall corolla indumentum, florally they are very

Accepted for publication May 1980.

753

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 754 KEW BULLETIN VOL. 35(4)
TABLE 1. Comparison of H. lodarensis, H. saud
All measurements in mm

H. lodarensis H. saudi-arabica H. boleana

Pedicel 8 x 1 11-12 x 1.5 5-10 x 1.3

Sepal length 10 10 6
Corolla length 20 27 23
Corolla diam. 32 32 27
Corolla-tube length 11 13 12
Corolla-tube diam. 11 12-13 12
Corolla-lobe length 9 13-14 11
Corolla-lobe width 9 9 7
Corolla papillae maximum length 1 1-5 1-4
Outer corona 5-lobed 5-lobed discoid
Outer corona diam. 5 7 8-5
Inner corona-lobe length 3-5 3-5-4 6

similar (see Table 1). However, it is in thes

the species can be distinguished. In H. bolean
only very shallowly lobed (Fig. 1 U, V), wh
5-lobed with each lobe being shallowly bif
the latter as having the unique feature of th
'platform' but unfortunately this is not
deposited at Kew. He also draws attenti
denticulate, rather frill-like, erect margin o
suggests that this feature could be considere
Lavranos 1900, the margin, although evident
is not considered here to be a prominent
the type material of H. boleana is seen to be
certainly could not be described as papillo
background that the new species can be seen:

Huernia saudi-arabica D. V. Field sp. no

H. lodarensi Lavranos affinis, a priore pedice
bus, corollae diametro majore, lobis lon
exteriore 5-loba diametro minore, et lobis
posteriore pedicellis longioribus, corollae t
corollae papillis majoribus et corona exter
Typus: Saudi Arabia, I. S. Collenette 549 (holo

Perennial leafless succulent herb. Stems up t

ing teeth, erect, sometimes decumbent at ba
green mottled with dark purple, 5-angled wi
not hardened deltoid-acuminate teeth up t
cence produced from near base of stem, g
developing successively. Pedicels 9 mm long,
glabrous. Calyx 5-lobed, lobes free almost
1 25 mm wide at base, glabrous. Corolla de
tube 11-13 mm long, 12 mm diam. increas
deltoid-acuminate, 12-15 mm long, 9-10

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A NEW ARABIAN HUERNIA 755

WA ng

A ;14 A A

SA A

:: 4A E
-?P/l

tt.

FIG. 1. A-G Huernia saudi-arabic

one calyx-lobe removed to sho
inner surface of corolla x 12;
view x 4; G tip of inner coron
half of corolla removed to sho
inner surface of corolla x 12; M
P tip of inner corona-lobe x 16.
and calyx removed to show cor
surface of corolla x 12; U coron
W tip of inner corona-lobe x 16
from M. G. & S. B. Gilbert 2431

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 756 KEW BULLETIN VOL. 35(4)
lobes c. 1-5 mm long, main lobes with a la
and two lateral veins running down on
branching just below intermediate lobe
veins becoming paler towards base of tu
red, covered with small papillae increas
pale yellow and dark purple at rounded
terminated by a minute point, those in th
yellow bases, these extend for about 7 m
smooth, deep purple. Outer corona c. 8
3 mm wide at base, bifid for 0-75 mm
corona-lobes c. 5-5 mm high, transverse
then gradually tapering to subulate point,
purple at base, white above thickening,
spots towards virtually smooth apices. (Fig

SAUDI ARABIA. Jebel Al Sudah, Abha

March 1978, Mrs I. S. Collenette 549 (hol

Huernia saudi-arabica is an erect plant ve

appearance while in its floral characters it
H. lodarensis and H. boleana. It has long na
while the corolla is slightly larger than bo
lobe exceeds its basal width by 4 to 5 mm
length and width are approximately eq
arabica have a more conspicuous papillo
H. lodarensis and the inner surface of the
short but even sized papillae (Fig. 1 C). I
mixture of a few papillae and low tube
virtually absent from the tip of the corol
outer corona of H. saudi-arabica is distinct
each lobe is considerably wider than long
rather than being somewhat parallel-sid
of the new species are more acute tow
lodarensis and like H. boleana are smooth r
extreme tip. From Table 1 it will be seen
intermediate position between the two
seems desirable to regard Collenette 549 as

APPENDIX

In 1978, F. Noltee published a note on H. boleana based on some collections

made in Ethiopia during 1975. If the identification of all the specimens in this
study is correct, a wide variation in size and shape would be evident but the
information is not sufficiently detailed to make a judgement. The sketches in
Noltee's note show the outer corona to vary from the discoid, only obscurely
lobed form of the type of H. boleana to a deeply 5-lobed corona more reminis-
cent of that of the Ethiopian H. recondita M. G. Gilbert, another closely
related species. It is interesting to note that a photograph in Noltee's article
shows the margins of the corolla-lobes having a distinctly papillose-denticulate
structure, but this also occurs in H. recondita.

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A NEW ARABIAN HUERNIA 757
REFERENCES

Brown, N. E. (1895). Diagnoses Africanae 8. Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew 1895: 265.
Gilbert, M. G. (1975). The genus Huernia in Ethiopia. Cact. & Succ. Journ.
(U.S.) 47: 6-13.
Lavranos, J. J. (1963). Two new species of Huernia from south-western
Arabia. Journ. S. Afr. Bot. 29: 97-101.
Lavranos, J. J. (1964). New Stapelieae from southern Arabia. Journ. S. Afr.
Bot. 30: 87.
Leach, L. C. (1976). A preliminary review of the prominently papillose
Huernia species (Asclepiadaceae). Journ. S. Afr. Bot. 42: 439-487.
Noltee, F. (1978). Interessante en wenig bekende succulenten uit Ethiopia. 5.
Huernia boleana M. G. Gilbert. Succulenta 10: 210-217.
Schwartz, 0. (1939). Flora des tropischen Arabien: 195. Hamburg.
White, A. & Sloane, B. L. (1937). The Stapelieae 3: 859. Pasadena, Cali-
fornia.

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