A Further Note on Erythrina Melanacantha (Leguminosae Papilionideae), Including a New Subspecies from Somalia

Abstract

Chiovenda distinguished his var. somala from E. melanacantha var. melanacantha by its smaller leaves arid shorter calyx and standard. He also described the fruits and seeds of var. somala but did not know that they differed from those ofvar. melanacantha, which had not, at that time been collected. 'When, in 1962-3, the present author studied this species it became clear that the characters used by Chiovenda are not satisfactory for separating var. somala from the rest of the species. Although a single specimen with fruit from northern Kenya was by then available the fruits had been picked up off the ground and it seemed possible that differences between them and fruits from Somalia could be due to decay. For these reasons no distinction between var. somala and var. melanacantha was at that time upheld.