Vachellia hydaspica and V. pseudoeburnea (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) synonymized under V. eburnea

Abstract

Acacia hydaspica J.R.Drumm. ex R.Parker (1921: 309) and A. pseudoeburnea J.R.Drumm. ex Dunn (1922: 185) were treated as conspecific with A. eburnea (L. f.) Willd. (1806: 1081) by Chakrabarty & Gangopadhyay (1996: 609). However, when these taxa were recently transferred to Vachellia they were treated as distinct species, namely, V. hydaspica (J.R.Drumm ex R.Parker) Ali (Jan. 2014: 3; this same combination was also made by Ragupathy et. al. in March 2014: 176), V. pseudoeburnea (J.R.Drumm. ex Dunn) Ragupathy et al. (2014: 177) and V. eburnea (L.f.) Hurter & Mabberley in Mabberley (2008: 1021), respectively. Neither Ali (l.c.) nor Ragupathy et al. (l.c.) provided distinctive features of the taxa to justify their adoption of species rank, although Ragupathy et al. (l.c.) did say that they were following the classification of Kumar & Sane (2003) and Roskov et al. (2005) rather than that of Chakrabarty & Gangopadhyay (1996). The present studies for the ‘Flora of India Project’ currently in preparation revealed that the dividing lines between Vachellia eburnea, V. hydaspica and V. pseudoeburnea are not clear cut (Table 1) and therefore they are best treated as a single species, V. eburnea. The necessary synonymy (and typification) is therefore made here.

Annotated checklist of Senegalia and Vachellia (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae) for the Indian subcontinent

“…West Asia: Afghanistan. Chakrabarty and Gangopadhyay (1996) and Chakrabarty and Maina (2016) adopted a broad concept of Acacia (Vachellia) eburnea, including within its synonymy A. hydaspica and A. pseudoeburnea which were regarded as distinct species by Sanjappa (1992), and which are treated here as V. hydaspica and V. pseudoeburnea respectively. Also, Chakrabarty and Gangopadhyay (1996) regarded Acacia campbellii as conspecific with Acacia (Vachellia) eburnea but we have followed Sanjappa (1992) in treating it as a distinct species (see V. campbellii above).…”

“…Acacia hydaspica was accepted as distinct by Roskov et al (2005), Kumar and Sane (2003) and (as Vachellia hydaspica) by Ali (2014); however, by Chakrabarty and Gangopadhyay (1996) and Chakrabarty and Maina (2016) treated it as conspecific within a broadly defined A. (Vachellia) eburnea.…”

“…Acacia pseudoeburnea was accepted as a distinct species by Kumar and Sane (2003) and Roskov et al (2005) but was treated as conspecific with A. (Vachellia) eburnea by Chakrabarty and Gangopadhyay (1996) and Chakrabarty and Maina (2016). Following detailed studies by the first author (Deshpande unpubl.…”