Lasianthus tomentosus Blume

124. Lasianthus tomentosus Blume View in CoL

Lasianthus tomentosus Blume (1826 View in CoL –1827) 997;Miq.(1857) 318,p.p. quoad type specimens;(1869) 245; Bakh.f. (1965) 343. — Type: Blume s.n. (lecto L, designated here, barcode L0057521 ), Java.

Shrubs, c. 2 m high; branchlets terete, c. 2 mm diam, densely to thinly brown-tomentose. Leaves: blades ovate-oblong to oblong, 6.5–11 by 2–4 cm, thinly coriaceous, glabrous above, tomentose beneath, apex cuspidate-acute, aristate, base acute or broadly cuneate, midrib and nerves flat above, prominent beneath, nerves 3–6, ascending at an angle of 50–60°, curved to the margin, nervules distinct above, prominent and distinct beneath, parallel; petioles 5– 8 mm long, tomentose. Stipules triangular, 2 –3 mm long, densely to sparsely tomentose. Cymes sessile; bracts absent. Flowers sessile; calyx campanulate, 2 –3 mm long, tomentose, tubes c. 1 mm long, lobes 5, lanceolate, c. 1.5 –2 mm long; corolla 5 –8 mm long, tomentose outside. Drupes subglobose, sparsely tomentose, crowned by lanceolate calyx lobes; pyrenes 5.

Distribution — Indonesia (Java, Sulawesi, Irian Jaya), Papua New Guinea.

Notes — This species was confused with L. trichophlebus var. latifolius (= L. hiiranensis or Lasianthus tomentosus var. hiiranensis (Hayata) H.Zhu ). The specimens from mainland SE Asia and Peninsular Malaysia were treated as L. tomentosus ( King & Gamble 1904, Ridley 1923a, Craib 1934) which may be due to two misidentified sheets in Kew. Based on the same sheets, they were treated as L. tomentosus var. hiiranensis . These two specimens in Kew, Horsfield s.n. [Rub. 50] from Java, are indicated as L. tomentosus in Miquel’s handwriting and were cited as such in literature ( Miquel 1857). Miquel later changed his mind and considered that they were not the same as L. tomentosus ( Miquel 1869) . The type material of L. tomentosus is only present in Leiden. It is difficult to correctly recognize L. tomentosus based on the simple original description without examining type material. The specimens from mainland SE Asia and Malaysia which were mistaken as L. tomentosus , have conspicuous strigose linear-lanceolate stipules, 4-merous flowers, hirsute and verrucose drupes with 4 pyrenes and are more closely related to L. trichophlebus than to L. tomentosus ; we include them in L. trichophlebus var. latifolius .

Lasianthus tomentosus differs from L. lucidus in having tomentose hairs on branchlets, leaf lower surface, and flowers. The population from Java has dense tomentose hairs, but the populations from Sulawesi and New Guinea become less hairy and are closer to L. lucidus .

Only one specimen annotated L. tomentosus in Blume’s handwriting was seen in Leiden. However, Blume’s description mentions several localities and consequently this specimen is a syntype. We have chosen it as the lectotype of Blume’s species.