Anonidium brieyi De Wild., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 13: 383 1914
Creators: name: Couvreur, Thomas L. P.
name: Dagallier, Leo-Paul M. J.
name: Crozier, Francoise
name: Ghogue, Jean-Paul
name: Hoekstra, Paul H.
name: Kamdem, Narcisse G.
name: Johnson, David M.
name: Murray, Nancy A.
name: Sonke, Bonaventure
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Magnoliales
Annonaceae
Anonidium
Anonidium brieyi

description: Anonidium brieyi De Wild., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 13: 383, 1914 Figs 9, 10; Map 1H ≡ Anonidium mannii var. brieyi (De Wild.) R.E.Fr., Acta Hort. Berg. 10: 80, 1930. = Anonidium friesianum Exell, J. Bot. 70, Suppl. Polypet.: 211, 1932. Type. Angola. Mayombe, Buco Zau, <i>Gossweiler J. 6690</i>, 16 Sep 1916: lectotype, designated here: LISC[LISC000056]; isolectotypes: COI[COI00004880]; BM[BM000546826, BM000546827]; LISC[LISC000054, LISC000055, LISC000057, LISC000058, LISC000059, LISC000060, LISC000061, LISC000062, LISC000063]. Type. Democratic Republic of the Congo. Bas-Congo; Ganda-Sundi, <i>de Briey J. 86</i>, 1911: lectotype, here designated: BR[BR8822635]; isolectotype: BR[BR8822642]. Description. Tree, 15-25 m tall, d.b.h. up to 35 cm; stilt roots or buttresses absent. Indumentum of simple hairs; old leafless branches glabrous, young foliate branches sparsely pubescent to glabrous. Leaves: petiole 3-10 mm long, 2-5 mm in diameter, sparsely pubescent, soon becoming glabrous, slightly grooved, blade inserted on top of the petiole; blade 37-50 cm long, 10-16 cm wide, oblong, apex rounded to abruptly acuminate, acumen 2-3.5 cm long, base rounded, subcordate, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, below sparsely pubescent when young, glabrous when old, above glabrous when young and old, concolorous; midrib impressed, above glabrous when young and old, below sparsely pubescent when young, glabrous when old; secondary veins 14 to 16 pairs, glabrous above; tertiary venation reticulate. <b>Individuals dioecious</b>; inflorescences cauliflorous or on leafless branches, axillary; peduncle 50-115 mm long, 3-10 mm in diameter, woody, hanging or semi erect from the trunk, glabrous. Flowers with 9 perianth parts in 3 whorls, <b>1 to 10 per inflorescence</b>, male and female inflorescences similar; pedicel 10-35 mm long, 2-4 mm in diameter, glabrous; bracts, 1 to 2 basal and one upper towards the upper of pedicel, basal bracts 5-10 mm long, 5-10 mm wide; upper bract directly under the calyx, amplexicaul, 12-21 mm long, 10-20 mm wide; sepals 3, valvate, free, 20-40 mm long, 14-18 mm wide, triangular, apex long acuminate, gradually tapering into an acute apex, base truncate, green, densely pubescent outside, glabrous inside, margins flat; petals free, sub equal; outer petals 3, 35-60 mm long, 10-18 mm wide, narrowly elliptic to obovate, apex acute to attenuate, base attenuate, green turning yellow, margins flat, pubescent outside, pubescent inside; <b>inner petals 3, valvate, 30-50 mm long, 9-16 mm wide</b>, narrowly elliptic, apex acute, base truncate, green turning yellow, margins flat, pubescent outside, pubescent inside; stamens in male flowers: 500 to 700 inserted on a conical receptacle, in 14 to 17 rows, 3.5-5 mm long, oblong, connective truncate, sparsely pubescent, green to cream-yellow; carpels in female flower (see notes) 220 to 260, ovary 2-3 mm long, stigma capitate, glabrous; staminodes absent. Whole fruits not seen, label information: <b>ca. 20 cm long, ca. 10 cm in diameter</b> [taken from descriptions on specimens <i>Hallé &amp; Villiers 4505</i> , P02032580], white [taken from <i>Cheek 10240</i> P00956188]; seed 1, 40-48 mm long, 17-23 mm wide, ellipsoid; aril absent. Distribution. A central African species, known from Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo and Angola (Cabinda); in Cameroon known from the Littoral and South-West regions. Habitat. An uncommon species, in lowland primary or old secondary rain forests. Altitude 100-350 m a.s.l. Local and common names known in Cameroon. None recorded. IUCN conservation status. Not evaluated. Uses in Cameroon. None recorded. Notes. <i>Anonidium brieyi</i> differs from <i>A. mannii</i> by its usually larger leaves and the narrower inner (10-18 mm wide versus 15-25 mm in <i>A. mannii</i>), and the upper bract inserted just under the calyx (versus near the middle of the pedicel in <i>A. mannii</i>). Three collections seen have strictly female flowers (<i>Couvreur 1132</i>, WAG; <i>Hallé &amp; Villiers 4505</i> , [P02032580]; <i>Sita 712</i> [MPU411091). The first author’s field observations failed to see any stamens in the thus apparently female flowers (Fig. 10J). A note by Le Testu (<i>Le Testu 1641</i> [P02032574]) also indicates that the species is dioecious. This suggests that <i>A. brieyi</i> is a strictly dioecious species (male and female flowers on different individuals) rather than androdioecious as in the other species of <i>Anonidium</i> (Le Thomas 1969b). This is the first time this is suggested to occur in this species as only male flowers were described to date. <i>Anonidium letestui</i> Pellegr. (endemic to Gabon) has functionally female flowers, but has a small row of sterile stamens at the base (Le Thomas 1969b), something not observed in the two female specimens examined in <i>A. brieyi</i> (Fig. 10J). Variation of sexual systems within genera (e.g. androdioecious and dioecious species) has been reported in African Annonaceae such as <i>Monanthotaxis</i> (Hoekstra et al. 2021) or <i>Uvariopsis</i> (Couvreur and Luke 2010). Le Thomas (1969b) recognized this species as a variety of <i>A. mannii</i> (A. mannii var. brieyi (De Wild.) Fries), however, the morphological differences in addition to its dioecious nature described above warrant it to be retained at the species level for now. Nevertheless, a phylogeographic study of <i>A. mannii</i> based on hundreds of nuclear markers inferred a nested position of <i>A. brieyi</i> (population collected around reference number <i>Couvreur 1132</i>, here identified as <i>A. brieyi</i>) within <i>A. mannii</i> (Helmstetter et al. 2020). This sheds further doubt on the delimitation between these two species and needs further study. Narrowly elliptic petals are also found in the Gabonese species <i>A. floribundum</i> Pellegr. (not recorded for Cameroon to date). However, this latter species is a small tree up to 4 or 5 m tall, the inflorescences are shorter with fewer flowers, and it is androdioecious (Le Thomas 1969b). Two herbarium specimens (<i>Cheek 10240</i>, Cameroon; <i>Hallé &amp; Villiers 4505</i> , Gabon) indicate that the collection had fruits, but we were unable to locate them. <i>Cheek 10240</i> states the fruits are white. Collection <i>Cheek 12040</i> was identified as <i>A. mannii</i> in the check list of the plants of Mt Kupe (Cheek et al. 2004, p. 236). Four of the type sheets of the name <i>A. friesianum</i> have seeds (<i>Gossweiler 6690</i>, LISC000055, LISC000058, LISC000060, LISC000063). On sheets LISC000055 and LISC000061 there are large narrow structures (18 cm by 3.5 cm) which we cannot identify, either being a dried fruit or part of the bark (?). The sheet <i>Cheek 10240</i> from P (P00956188) is a mixed collection. The leaves belong to a species of <i>Uvariopsis</i> (probably <i>Uvariopsis connivens</i>), and not <i>A. brieyi</i>. The flowers however are from <i>A. brieyi.</i> The other sheets we have seen appear to have the correct leaves (K, WAG [WAG.1378838]) Finally, for the type of <i>Anonidium friesianum</i>, among the 10 sheets of <i>Gossweiler 6690</i> available at we did not designate one sheet as lectotype because every sheet has important information (leaves, seeds, leaves) and should be considered as a single collection. Among the 10 sheets of <i>Gossweiler 6690</i> available at LISC for the type of <i>Anonidium friesianum</i>, we selected a single sheet as the lectotype (LISC000056). Indeed, according to the ICBN, different sheets are considered as a single specimen only if they are cross-referenced (e.g. "Sheet I", "Sheet II") which is not the case here. The selected sheet (LISC000056) was the only one that had a leaf and a flower (but broken) thus being the most complete. The other sheets only had either just leaves, or inflorescences or flowers or seeds. Specimens examined. <b>Littoral Region</b>: Loum Forest Reserve, 4.73°N, 9.731°E, <i>16 April 2005</i>, <i>Onana J.M.</i> 3101 (K). <b>South-West Region</b>: Banga, 4.55°N, 9.416°E, <i>01 March 1956</i>, <i>Binuyo A.</i> 35606 (FHO); Southern Bakundu FR, 4.48°N, 9.350°E, <i>13 March 1948</i>, <i>Brenan J.P.M.</i> 9410 (K,P); Just west of Loum, 4.73°N, 9.729°E, <i>03 December 1999</i>, <i>Cheek M.</i> 10240 (K,MO,P,WAG,YA); S Bakundu FR, 4.49°N, 9.374°E, <i>09 April 1951</i>, <i>Olorunfemi J.</i> 30508 (K); 5 km S of Kumba on Buea /Douala Road, 4.65°N, 9.39°E, <i>21 June 1983</i>, <i>Thomas D.W.</i> 2188 (MO,P,WAG).
description: Published as part of <i>Couvreur, Thomas L. P., Dagallier, Leo-Paul M. J., Crozier, Francoise, Ghogue, Jean-Paul, Hoekstra, Paul H., Kamdem, Narcisse G., Johnson, David M., Murray, Nancy A. &amp; Sonke, Bonaventure, 2022, Flora of Cameroon - Annonaceae Vol 45, pp. 1-532 in PhytoKeys 207</i> on pages 47-52, DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.207.61432
description: {"references": ["Le Thomas, A, 1969b. Annonacees. In: Aubreville, A, Ed., Flore du Gabon. Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris: 1 - 371", "Hoekstra, PH, Wieringa, JJ, Maas, JM, Chatrou, LW, 2021. Revision of the African species of Monanthotaxis (Annonaceae). Blumea 66: 107 - 221, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3767/blumea.2021.66.02.01", "Couvreur, TLP, Luke, WRQ, 2010. A new species of Uvariopsis (Annonaceae), endemic to the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. Blumea - Biodiversity, Evolution and Biogeography of Plants 55: 68 - 72, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3767/000651910X499196", "Helmstetter, AJ, Bethune, K, Kamdem, NG, Sonke, B, Couvreur, TLP, 2020. Individualistic evolutionary responses of Central African rain forest plants to Pleistocene climatic fluctuations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117: 32509 - 32518, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001018117", "Cheek, M, Pollard, BJ, Darbyshire, I, Onana, JM, Wild, C, 2004. The plants of Kupe, Mwanenguba and the Bakossi Mountains, Cameroon. A conservation checklist. Kew Publishing. Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Kew, U.K."]}