Family: Fabaceae |
M. Thulin (1993) Securigera. Flora of Somali 1: 461 Plants annnual or perennial herbs or small shrubs. Stems and branches angular or sulcate. Leaves odd-pinnate; stipules free or fused, with dark tips. Inflorescences axillary. pedunculate heads or umbels, sometimes with only 1-2 flowers but sometimes with as many as 20; bracts free, with dark tips. Calyces with sub-equal lobes; corollas white, pink, purple, or yellow, petals clawed; stamens 10, the uppermost free, the other 9 united by their filaments; styles glabrous, smoothly cirved and tapering; stigmas oblique. Pods indehiscent, linear to lanceolate, jointed between the seeds. Coronilla has been expanded to include the genus called Securigera in the Flora of Somalia. It now includes about 25 species that are native around the Mediterranean extending into northern Africa, central Europe and western Asia, but some species are widely cultivated. Underlined statements in the above description are in the description of Securigera in the Flora. They may not apply to all species of Coronilla. One species of Coronilla, Coronilla somalensis, is present in both Somaliland and Somalia. S.I. Ali (1977) Securigera. Flora of West Pakistan 100: 316-318. Plants annual herbs. Leaves odd pinnate; stipules small; leaflets entire. Inflorescences axillary or terminal pedunculate umbels; umbels with 4-7 flowers. Flowers: calyx united, 2-lipped; corollas yellow; keels beaked; stamens 10, 9 united together, 1 separate. Fruits laerally compressed, indehiscent, beaked, with thickened margins. See "Phylogenetic notes" for the decision to include Securigera in Coronilla. Only one species, Coronilla securidaca, has been reported from Pakistan. There are no records from Pakistan in GBIF (21 Apr 2024) Mary E. Barkworth Global databases (POWO, Catalogue of Life, Legume database) all treat Coronilla as including species that used to be placed in the genus Securigera. I was looking for a generic description that clearly reflected this interpretation and failed to do so. Lassen (1989) provided key that separates them: Coronilla: Stems and branches terete; bracts connate into an inconspicious involucre; stipules and involucres without dark markings. Securigera: Stems and branches angular or sulcate; bracts free; stipules and involucral bracts with dark markings. I then searched for phylogenetic papers, to understand why they were being lumped together. Sokoloff et al. (2007) provide the answer. The authors included Securigera in Coronilla but their trees show that the two taxa form two distinct clades within a larger clade. Moreover, their table (p. 813) of 20 developmental features shows the six representatives of the two groups differing consistently in only 2. They also looked at whether species of the two differed in consistently in having only one umbel in their inflorescences. Here too there is no clear distinction. One of eight species of Coronilla sensu stricto, Coronilla coronata, has plants that always have some inflorescences with more than umbel. This is the normal condition in Securigera but 2 of the 7 species examined had only one umbel in all their inflorescences. They did not comment on the featues used by Lassen to distinguish the two. I am using the broad interpretation of Coronilla for OpenHerbarium but it is one of those cases where there is good support for the not doing so. Sokoloff D.S., G.V. Degtjareva, P.K. Endress, M.V. Remizowa, T.H. Samigullin, & C.M. Valiejo-Roman (2007) Inflorescence and early flower development in Loteae (Leguminosae) in a phylogenetic and taxonomic context. Int. J. Plant Sci. 168(6):801–833. https://1058-5893/2007/16806-0003. |