1974/01/01 by Kenneth R. Robertson
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies #Plant Diversity and Evolution #Plant Taxonomy and Phylogenetics
paper · doi:10.2307/2395073
openalex publication_date 1974/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Jacqucmontia ovalifolia (Choisy) Ilallier f. is one of the most broadly distributed species of the genus.A study of herbarium material from throughout its range lead to the recognition of three subspecies: subsp.ovalifolia from Africa, subsp.ohcordata (Millspaugh) Robertson from Mexico and the West Indies, and subsp.sandwicensis (A.Cray) Robertson from the Hawaiian Islands.The species is probably of American origins and was dispersed at an unknown time by unknown means to Africa and Hawaii.The nomenclatural histories of the species and subspecies are reviewed, and a complete taxonomic treatment is presented.While preparing a revision of the New World species of Jacquemontia Choisy, taxonomic and nomenclatural difficulties were encountered with what has been called /. subsalina Britton or /. ohcordata (Millspaugh) House, and it became clear that the problems could be resolved only by studying this taxon and its relatives on a world-wide basis, namely Africa, Mexico and the West Indies, and the Hawaiian Islands. NOMENCLATURAL HISTORY African PopulationsVahl (1798) described a plant collected by von Rohr supposedly in "India Occidentali" as Convolvulus ovalifolius; the type and an isotype are conserved in Copenhagen (Fig. 3).This specimen is discordant with any known American plant.Monachino (1958) realized this from an examination of the type and concluded that it was instead from the Hawaiian Islands.Verdcourt (1963) considered the von Rohr collection identical with plants from Africa, although he stated that the type specimen probably was from Trinidad.In comparing the von Rohr collection with material from the West Indies, Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, and Africa, I concur with Verdcourt that the type of Convolvulus ovalifolius Vahl belongs to the same taxon as the African plants.Julius von Rohr collected primarily in the West Indies and northwestern South America during the late Eighteenth Century; however, Junghans (1961) notes that von Rohr did collect a few plants in Danish Guinea [now Ghana] and that there are