Crotalaria nallamalayana Rasingam & J. Swamy 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Rasingam, Ladan
name: Swamy, Jetti
name: Rao, Mudadla Sankara
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Fabales
Fabaceae
Crotalaria
Crotalaria nallamalayana

description: Crotalaria nallamalayana Rasingam & J. Swamy, sp. nov. Figs 1, 2.
Type: — India, Telangana, Mahabubnagar district, Amrabad Tiger Reserve, Mallayalodhi, on the way to waterfall, 22 nd September 2013, L. Rasingam & M. Sankara Rao 3715 (Holotype BSID, Isotypes CAL).
Diagnosis: — Crotalaria nallamalayana is similar to C. orixensis and C. senegalensis by its diffuse habit and oblong pods with many seeds, but differs from the former by having linear stipules to 7 mm long (lanceolate-falcate, up to 3 mm long in C. orixensis), terminal inflorescences with blue flowers (leaf opposed with yellow flowers in C. orixensis) and pubescent, sessile pods (glabrous, stipitate pods in C. orixensis); and from the latter species by having obovate leaves (linear, lanceolate or elliptic in C. senegalensis), ovate bracts (linear to linear-lanceolate in C. senegalensis) and blue flowers (yellow in C. senegalensis).
Diffuse perennial herb; stems slender, terete, brownish to pink, 20–30 cm long, 3–4 mm in diam., densely hairy; internodes 1.5–3.0 cm long. Leaves digitately trifoliolate; stipules ca. 7 × 1 mm long, not foliaceous, persistent, linear, aristate at apex, densely hairy on upper surface, glabrous on lower surface, 10–15-nerved; petiole 0.8–1.2 cm long, hairy, pulvinate, ca. 2 mm long. Terminal leaflets 2.0–3.5 × 1.2–2.1 cm, obovate, rounded-sub-cordate at base, margin entire, obtuse-retuse with apiculate tip at apex, thinly appressed hairy above, densely hairy below, midrib flat or slightly sunken above, nerves slightly raised above, 6–8 per side, 2–4 mm apart, venation reticulate; petiolule 3–6 mm long, hairy; stipels persistent, 1–2 mm long, linear, hairy. Lateral leaflets oblong-obovate, 1.3–2.5 × 0.6–1.0 cm long, cuneate at base, margin entire, rounded-obtuse with apiculate apex, thinly appressed hairy above, densely hairy below, lateral nerves 5–6 per side; petiolule ca. 1 mm long, hairy. Inflorescences terminal racemes 3.5–7.0 cm long; peduncle 0.8–1.4 cm long, densely brownish hairy mixed with short uncinate hairs. Bracts ca. 6.0 x 1.2 mm long, persistent, ovate with long cuspidate apex, densely hairy above, glabrous below, ca. 30 nerves on surface. Pedicels 4–5 mm long, filiform, appressed hairy mixed with short uncinate hairs. Flowers 4–6 × 3–4 mm long. Calyx 4.0– 4.5 mm long; tube ca. 1.5 mm long; lobes unequal, 2.5–3.0 x 1.2 mm, lanceolate, acuminate at apex, hairy above, glabrous below. Corolla blue with white streaks in the centre, slightly exserted. Standard with claw 0.8–1.0 mm long, glabrous; blade broadly obovate, 5.0 × 3.5 mm long, margin entire, rounded at apex, glabrous on surface. Wings with claw 0.4–0.6 mm long, glabrous; blade 3.5 × 1.3 mm long, oblong, rounded at apex, glabrous on surface. Keel petals with claw 0.9–1.2 mm long, glabrous; blade 4.0 × 1.5 mm long, boat shaped, rounded at apex, glabrous. Stamens unequal; tube ca. 4 mm long, oblique, free part of filaments 0.4–0.8 mm long; anthers dimorphic, 5 small dorsifixed anthers on long filaments and 5 large basifixed anthers on short filaments, glabrous. Gynoecium sessile, ca. 6 mm long; ovary ca. 4 mm long, linearoblong, densely hairy; style ca. 2 mm long, geniculate; stigma capitate. Pod sessile, oblong-ellipsoid, 10–12 × 0.4–0.5 mm long with ca. 3 mm geniculate beak, thinly hairy on surface, 7–8 seeded; seeds reniform.
Flowering & Fruiting: —August–November.
Habitat: —The species is usually found in open rocky grasslands of dry deciduous forests in association with Buchnera americana L.(1753:630), Ceropegia bulbosa Roxb.(1795:11), Aristolochia indica L.(1753:960), Euphorbia cristata B.Heyne ex Roth (1821: 226), Tylophora fasciculata Buch. -Ham. ex Wight (1834: 50) and Waltheria indica L. (1753: 673).
Distribution: — India, Telangana, Mahabubnagar district, Amrabad Tiger Reserve, Mallayalodhi (Fig. 3).
Etymology: —The species is named after the type locality Nallamala forest, which is a part of the Eastern Ghats of Telangana state.
Notes: — Crotalaria nallamalayana and C. orixensis belong to the section Calycinae Wight & Arn. (181: 1834), subsection Calycinae, as both species have spirally twisted keel beaks and almost 2-lipped calyces, deeply cleft and roughly as long as the corolla. On the other hand Crotalaria senegalensis belongs to the section Crotalaria subsection Longirostrae (Benth.) Polhill (312: 1968), which is very close to the section Calycinae but differs in the shape of the calyx and corolla length.
description: Published as part of Rasingam, Ladan, Swamy, Jetti & Rao, Mudadla Sankara, 2018, Crotalaria nallamalayana (Fabaceae: Crotalarieae): a new species from Telangana, India, pp. 159-164 in Phytotaxa 345 (2) on pages 159-162, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.345.2.7, http://zenodo.org/record/13708513