Phaseolus sinuatus Nuttall ex Torrey & A. Gray (1838: 279)

Phaseolus sinuatus Nuttall ex Torrey & A. Gray (1838: 279) View in CoL [clade B; sect. Paniculati Freytag]. TYPE: N Ware s.n. (SYNTYPE: PH-28331).

John Torrey and Asa Gray mentioned two specimens for P.sinuatus (a name they have seen in a manuscript by Nathaniel Nuttall): one collected by Mr. Ware (studied at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and afore-mentioned) and another one by Dr. Burrows (not seen during this study). No strong arguments have been found to consider it as a variety or subspecies of P. polystachyus . It is worth remembering the footnote by Asa Gray (1852, p. 43): “ P.sinuatus Nutt. , of which I have five specimens from Rugel’s Florida collection, No. 132, is widely different from P. perennis (since a synonym of P.polystachyus )”. The leaflets are distinctly (small round) lobed, the stems trailing instead of climbing and with heteroblastic development, and the perennial root system is much more globose. Further, it occupies a specific ecological niche of the SE United States: the longleaf and loblolly pine forests on sandy soils ( Radford et al. 1968) at 100– 140 m.

Specimens: U.S.A. North Carolina: JA Duke 1768 (NCU-126435). South Carolina: CR Bell 11063 (NCU-174816). Georgia: LC Anderson 15917 (BRIT). Florida: EA Bessey sn (MSC), F Rugel 132 (NA).

The specimen collected by Charles Louis Pollard 1017 (F-48720, GH, NY) from Jackson Co. in Mississippi belongs to Rhynchosia cinerea Nash. While P. sinuatus has been claimed to be present in Alabama and Mississippi ( Small 1903; Radford et al. 1968), no specimens from these states have been seen during this study (thus the indication of intermediate range in Table 2).