703. INDIGOFERA HOWELLII Brian Schrire, Susyn Andrews and ...

Indigofera subverticillata Gagnep. in Lecomte, Not. Syst. 3:120 (1915) nom. illegit.
Type: China, Tibet, Tsé kou, 1200 m, 1912, Abbé J.T. Monbeig s.n. (lectotype
P, [selected here]; isolectotypes A, K, NY, P, GH). See note 1 on page 89.
Indigofera emarginata Y.Y. Fang & C.Z. Zheng in Acta Phytotax. Sin. 21(3): 329
(1983), non Perr. (1830), nec G. Don (1832). Type: China, Yunnan, Deqin,
ca 3200 m, in sylvis montium, T.T. Yü 10074 (holotype SCBI).
Indigofera deqinensis Sanjappa, Taiwania 37(1): 3 (1992), nom. nov., as ‘deginensis’
for I. emarginata Y.Y. Fang & C.Z. Zheng 21(3): 329 (1983).
Indigofera potaninii misapplied (in major part), non Craib. See note 2 below.
Description. Erect spreading shrubs 1–3 m tall (up to 5 m against a wall)
and to 3 m wide. Stems single or few from base, becoming many-branched above;
branches angular at first, becoming terete below, sparsely to densely strigose
with appressed, whitish, biramous hairs or glabrescent; reddish-green above
becoming reddish brown with reticulate-striate bark and parallel rows of lenticels
below. Stipules 1–4 mm long, deltoid to lanceolate, erect, axillary buds and
juvenile growth often covered with appressed dark brown hairs. Leaves pinnately
(7)9–17(23)-foliolate, 3–12(15) cm long, including a petiole of (0.5)1–3(4) cm,
the leaves variable in length depending on season and age of plants; stipels
c. 1 mm long, filiform, caducous or lacking, small clusters of reddish pearl
body glands present between leaflets; terminal leaflet 0.8–3(3.5) × 0.3–1.5(2) cm,
±2–3 times as long as wide, obovate to oblong or elliptic, apex acute, rounded
or truncate with a ca 1 mm mucro; laterals often more oblong or elliptic; lamina
sparsely to densely strigose on both surfaces, paler beneath with clear reticulate
venation. Racemes 7–26(30) cm long, ± equalling to twice the length of the
subtending leaf, showy, ± spreading horizontally and curving upwards apically
(sometimes semi-pendulous in very long racemes), producing a layered look
through the canopy; peduncle 1–4 cm long (shorter on short shoots), densely (30)
50–150-flowered, bud zone (above open flowers towards apex) c. 5 mm wide,
laxly to densely arranged in narrow ‘rat-tails’, characteristically darkish in colour
with dark brown hairs on the bracts and calyces; bracts 1–2(2.5) mm long, ovate
to lanceolate, acuminate, ± hooded at base, caducous; pedicels 1–2.5(5) mmlong.
Calyx 2–3(4) mm long, strigose to subsericeous with white and frequently brown
hairs, reddish, drying dark; lobes narrowly triangular to lanceolate-acuminate
± equalling to twice the length of the tube. Corolla 8.5–10.5 mm long, bright
reddish pink to magenta; standard 5–6 mm wide, elliptic, dorsal surface densely
puberulent with minute white or greyish hairs, basal blotch white; keel whitish
to pink pubescent towards the apex and along upper margin, apex obtuse.
Stamens (6.5)7–8 mm long; ovary appressed pubescent, style ca 2 mm long, bent
1 Indigofera subverticillata is an illegitimate name because it included as one of its syntypes, the
specimen Soulié 870 (K!), collected in 1893 from Tatsienlu (Kangding) in Sichuan, which was
already the holotype of an earlier named species, I. souliei Craib (1913). The Kew holotype of I.
souliei is exclusively this species, but isotypes at P! (seen by Gagnepain) are mixed collections, also
containing specimens of I. howellii (hence their inclusion as a syntype of I. subverticillata Gagnep.).
2 Most material cultivated in Europe which is named Indigofera potaninii belongs to I. howellii,
although less commonly the name has also been misapplied to I. amblyantha Craib and I. pendula
Franch. Indigofera potaninii Craib is a synonym of I. szechuensis Craib.
© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2011. 89