Psoralea forbesiae (Psoraleeae, Fabaceae), a new species from the Swartberg Mountains of South Africa

Charles H Stirton; Abubakar Bello; A Muthama Muasya

doi:10.3897/phytokeys.99.24765

Psoralea forbesiae (Psoraleeae, Fabaceae), a new species from the Swartberg Mountains of South Africa

PhytoKeys. 2018 May 30:(99):93-99. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.99.24765. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Charles H Stirton¹, Abubakar Bello^{1

2}, A Muthama Muasya¹

Affiliations

¹ Bolus Herbarium, Biological Sciences Department, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa.
² Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, P.M.B. 2218, Umaru Musa Yarádua University, Katsina, Katsina State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Psoralea forbesiae C.H.Stirt., A.Bello & Muasya is a new species of Psoraleeae, Fabaceae. Psoralea forbesiae is endemic to the Swartberg Mountains and is a tall densely branched re-sprouting shrub up to 2.5 m, with bluish-green stems and with most parts covered in small crater-like glands, leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, linear-oblong, pale bluish-green, semi-conduplicate, somewhat succulent, glabrous, crowded at the end of bare branches on older stems or distributed along short branches on young shoots, petiolate. A description of P. forbesiae, together with photographs and a distribution map are presented.

Keywords: Endemic; Leguminosae; New species; Psoralea; Psoraleeae; South Africa; Taxonomy.