Commelina littoralis (Commelinaceae), a new species from India

Abstract

The present article accounts for a previously overlooked, new species of Commelina from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. The new species, here described as Commelina littoralis can be distinguished e.g. by its white antherodes, and appendaged seeds. It is compared with the similar, cosmopolitan species C. diffusa and C. caroliniana and provided with a description, illustration, photographs and distribution.

An overlooked invasive alien plant of Jejudo Island: Commelina caroliniana (Commelinaceae)

“…2I) (Faden, 1989(Faden, , 1993. Despite these similarities, there are clear differences between the two species, such as the shape of the involucral bracts, the trichomes of the involucral bracts and peduncle, the number of flowers on the upper cincinni, the presence of a brown spot on the central part of the antherode in the staminodes, the surfaces and color of the seeds, as well as the chromosome numbers (2n = 30 for C. diffusa vs. 2n = 86 for C. caroliniana) (Faden, 1989(Faden, , 1993Nandikar and Naik, 2019) (Table 1, Fig. 2).…”

“…1), which appeared *Author for correspondence: sdclym@korea.kr to be morphologically differentiated from the other Commelina taxa previously recorded in the flora of Korea (Lee, 2003;Lee, 2006;Lee, 2007;Kim and Kim, 2011;Lee, 2018). After examining various floras and herbarium specimens from Korea and adjacent countries as well as the relevant literature (Faden, 1989(Faden, , 1993(Faden, , 2000Hong, 2000;Lee, 2003;Lee, 2006;Kaul et al, 2007;Lee, 2007;Kim and Kim, 2011;Nampy et al, 2013;Joseph and Nampy, 2015;Fukuoka and Iwatsuki, 2016;Korea National Arboretum, 2017;Lee, 2018;Nandikar and Naik, 2019), it was concluded that the collected specimens were C. caroliniana Walter, a species native to Himalaya and India that has been introduced into many areas of the world, including the United States, Brazil, Philippines, Guyana, and Japan. Here, we have provided a detailed description, and color photographs of this newly recorded invasive alien plant in the flora of Korea, and this information could be utilized to help effectively manage it.…”