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Monograph of Dunbaria Available
ICRISAT has acquired wild relatives of its mandate
crops through collection in areas of occurrence. As such,
collections of Dunbaria as a genus related to Cajanus
have been present since the 1970s. Although the numbers
of living accessions are not very large, the availability
of some species enables research into them. The prime
source of information lies in the herbarium collections of
the areas where the species occur or did occur. Until
1998, no modern revision was available, but finally the
fruits of my research were published as Wageningen
Agricultural University Papers 98-1: Revision of the genus
Dunbaria Wight & Arn. (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae)
109 pp.
For this investigation the herbarium collections of 33
herbaria were studied, most of them have been in
Wageningen for an extended period of time. All specimens
have been returned to their owners in the meantime,
properly labeled with their correct scientific name.
The monograph describes 20 species of Dunbaria,
one of the genera in the subtribe Cajaninae of the legu-
"minous tribe Phaseoleae, to which Cajanus also belongs.
One species, the rare D. floresiana, was described as
new to science, and six species were provided with a new
combination. Most Dunbaria species are distributed in
Asia, while some species are found in Australia and
New Guinea (see Appendix for Dunbaria collections
available at ICRISAT, seeds for which, can be directly
obtained from Genebank Curator, ICRISAT). All species
are climbers with the general appearance of beans, and
grow in semi-deciduous forests, scrub vegetation or
grasslands of the moist or semi-arid tropical habitats.
From Vietnam to Japan one possibly cold-resistant species,
Dunbaria villosa, is found somewhat outside the range
of the rest of the genus. Dunbaria may play a role in
breeding, as it belongs to the secondary genepool of the
pigeonpea, to which it is obviously related, if we judge
from morphological appearance. Genetic relationships
have not been investigated in detail, and cytological data
have not come to my attention. Crossings have been
attempted in ICRISAT, but results have not been
published.
Some free copies of the monograph are available to
bona-fide pulse scientists. Please write or e-mail at the
following address:
Prof. dr. L J G van der Maesen
Laboratory for Plant Taxonomy
PO Box 8010, 6700 ED Wageningen, the Netherlands
e-mail: jos.vandermaesen@algem.pt.wau.nl
Appendix. Details of Dunbaria species available with ICRISAT Genebank, Patancheru.
ICP No.
15777
15778
15779
15780
15781
15782
15783
15784
15785
15786
15787
15788
Collector's number
JM 2312
JM 2317
JM 2336
PR 4025
PR 5429-1
PR 5709
PR 5737
JM 3499
NKR 75
PR 4844
PR 4853
PR 4863
Species name
D. ferruginea
D. ferruginea
D. ferruginea
D. ferruginea
D. ferruginea
D. ferruginea
D. ferruginea
D. heynei
D. heynei
D. heynei
D. heynei
D. heynei
Province
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Maharashtra
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Kerala
Karnataka
Kerala
Kerala
Tamil Nadu
Country
India
India
India
India
Tanzania
India
India
India
India
India
India
India
Location
5 km to Kundah; Ooty
9 km to Kotagiri; Ooty
20 km to Munar
Msata; Bagabogo
Dimbum, Nilgiri
Top Sangapatty; Thiruchirapalli
Kumuli, Udipi
6 km to kumbarwad
Vandiperiyar - Kumuli 10 km; Idukki
Kumuli Pirmed 10km; Idukki
Yercaud, Salem
ICPN 7, 2000 5