A new species, Alysicarpus poklianus Gholami & Pandey from Sinhgarh, Maharashtra, India is described. It is morphologically most similar to Alysicarpus hamosus but differs in having ovate leaves, rounded-ovate bracts, larger size of calyx, pods comprising 5–7 longer than broad joints with easily separable septa. In this study, a comprehensive description, and identification key of Alysicarpus poklianus are provided.

Alysicarpus gautalensis, a new species of legume, is described from Maharashtra, India. It differs from A. bupleurifolius in having glabrous branches, elliptic-oblong, obtuse leaves with ciliate margins and trichomes present on both surfaces, lobes of the calyx ciliate, pods 2–6 jointed, moniliform with a foveo-rugulate surface sculpturing.

No abstract

With 29 species in Iran, Polygonum L. is comprised of annual and perennial plants in different habitats. P. aviculare makes a species complex, hardly distinguished from P. arenastrum and P. patulum. In the present study, pollen grains, fruit surface and petals and leaves epidermis features were used to provide diagnostic features in order to separate species from one another. In Total, 33 populations of 6 annual species, including P. aviculare, P. arenastrum, P. patulum, P. argyrocoleon, P. polycnemoides and P. olivascens were studied. Specimens were gathered during field trips and studied by means of light and scanning electron microscopes. The Pollen grains of all the species which were studied were monad, subprolate or prolate spheroidal and tricolpate. Main differences were also observed in their surface ornamentations. Length of equatorial and polar axes and colpus, granules diameters and the average distance between granules were other diagnostic features of the pollen grains. Statistical analysis of epidermis features revealed that the length and width of epidermis cells and stomata length varied in the species studied. A close relationship was found between P. aviculare and P. arenastrum on the one hand and P. argyrocoleon and P. olivascens on the other. The separation of P. polycnemoides could be attributed to differences in epidermis features. Results showed that a selected set of these features to be of taxonomic importance.

Alysicarpus Necker ex Desvaux (Fabaceae, Desmodieae) consists of ~30 species that are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of theworld. In India, the genus is represented by ca. 18 species, ofwhich seven are endemic. Sequences of the nuclear Internal transcribed spacer from38 accessions representing 16 Indian specieswere subjected to phylogenetic analyses. The ITS sequence data strongly support the monophyly of the genus Alysicarpus. Analyses revealed four major well-supported clades within Alysicarpus. Ancestral state reconstructions were done for two morphological characters, namely calyx length in relation to pod (macrocalyx and microcalyx) and pod surface ornamentation (transversely rugose and nonrugose). The present study is the first report on molecular systematics of Indian Alysicarpus.