Spermacoce bequaertii (de Wild.) Verdc.

Spermacoce bequaertii (de Wild.) Verdc. View in CoL

Spermacoce bequaertii (de Wild.) Verdc.(1975) 305. — Borreria bequaertii de Wild. (1932) 432. — Type: Bequaert 7673 (holo BR![ BR0000008194701 ]; iso BR![ BR0000006728007 ],K!), Democratic Republic of Congo, Territoire Kinshasa , Léopoldville (= Kinshasa).

[ Borreria tetradon K.Schum.(1900) 322, nom.nud. — Based on: Schlechter 12475 (BR![BR0000008204813],K!, P![P00462479]), Democratic Republic of Congo, Dolo.]

Perennial herb with woody plant base and woody taproot; stems 15–35 cm tall, rather unbranched, red-brown,4-ribbed,glabrous. Leaves decussate, sessile, fused with stipule base; blades lin- ear, 1.5–8 by 0.1–0.5 cm, glabrous or sparsely beset with short hairs above; apex acute; base slightly narrowed; leaf margins revolute,glabrous;main vein glabrous;secondary veins obscure, glabrous. Stipules fimbriate; basal part 1.5–5 mm long, glabrous or sparsely to densely beset with short hairs; fimbriae usually 3, c. 2–9 mm long, colleter-tipped. Inflorescences terminal and often axillary at 1 or 2 successive lower nodes, 0.7–1.5 cm diam, each inflorescence with 2 or 4 supporting leaves with stipules of supporting leaves often broadened and forming a cup around the developing flowers; bracts stipuliform with numerous setae c. 1–3 mm long. Flowers shortly pedicellate or sessile, arranged in many-flowered capitula. Calyx tube reduced to a rim; lobes 4, very short, 0.25–0.5 mm long in flowering stage, margins beset with short hairs. Corolla white; tube cylindrical, sometimes funnel-shaped at the upper part, 0.5–3 mm long, glabrous outside, a ring of hairs at 2/3 of the base inside; corolla lobes narrowly triangular to narrowly ovoid, 1–3 mm long, glabrous inside and outside or sparsely pubescent outside. Anthers ellipsoid, 0.7–1.2 mm long, well exserted; filaments 0.7–5 mm long. Pollen 8-zonocolporate, suboblate to spheroidal; mean equatorial diameter (E) 40–45 µm; polar outline circular, slightly lobed; ectocolpi short and relatively broad; endoaperture an indistinct endocingulum; tectum perforate, granules or micro- spines uniformly present; inner nexine surface granular with numerous endocracks. Ovary ellipsoid to obovoid, 1–1.5 mm long, pubescent above; style 2–10 mm long, well exserted, glabrous; stigma capitate, c. 0.2 mm diam, papillose; nectary disc bipartite. Capsule ellipsoid to obovoid, c. 1.5–2 by 1–1.5 mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent above, crowned with the persistent calyx lobes; dehiscence septicidally and loculicidally in the upper part, remnants of the septum remaining attached to the valves. Seeds unknown (seeds not fully mature).

Key to the subspecies

1. Mature flowers larger: corolla tube 2–3 mm long, with a ring of hairs inside at 2/3 of the base; corolla lobes 2–3 mm long; filaments 3–5 mm long; style 6–10 mm long........................................ a. subsp. bequaertii View in CoL