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Photographs of Zehneria monocarpa. A. Habit. B. Branch with fruits. C. Abaxial leaf side of mature plant (showing glands). D. Adaxial leaf side of mature plant. E. Palmately lobed leaf of juvenile stem (abaxial). F. Palmately lobed leaf of juvenile stem (adaxial). G. Young branch. H. Root. I. A node with (i) Probract. Scale bar: the ruler used in the photos is calibrated in centimeter (cm; thick lines). Photographs: A, C, D, I. by G.W. Hu; B, E-G. by V.M. Ngumbau.
Source publication
Zehneria monocarpa (Cucurbitaceae), a new species from the fragmented lowland coastal forests of Kenya is described here and illustrated with photographs. It resembles Z. oligosperma and Z. longiflora, but can be distinguished by its solitary female flowers and fruits. Furthermore, the new species has 1–23 conspicuous dark green glands on the apex...
Citations
... Zehneria Endl. in Endlicher (1833: 69), a genus of Cucurbitaceae, consists of over 60 species distributed in tropical and subtropical Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, south and southeast Asia, and the Pacific Ocean region (Schaefer and Renner 2011;Dwivedi et al. 2018;Wei et al. 2020). Over the past two decades, multiple molecular phylogenetic studies have strongly supported that the remaining segregate genera Neoachmandra W.J. de Wilde & Duyfjes (2006a: 12) and Pilogyne Schrad. in Schrader (1835: 5) are paraphyletic, and together with the monotypic Anangia W.J.De Wilde & Duyfjes (2006b: 219) are deeply nested in Zehneria s.s. ...
... Over the past two decades, multiple molecular phylogenetic studies have strongly supported that the remaining segregate genera Neoachmandra W.J. de Wilde & Duyfjes (2006a: 12) and Pilogyne Schrad. in Schrader (1835: 5) are paraphyletic, and together with the monotypic Anangia W.J.De Wilde & Duyfjes (2006b: 219) are deeply nested in Zehneria s.s. (Kocyan et al. 2007;Schaefer et al. 2009;Schaefer & Renner 2011;De Boer et al. 2015, Dwivedi et al. 2018, Wei et al. 2020. From the perspective of nomenclature, Zehneria, a validly described genus, has priority over all the segregated generic names, including Anangia, Neoachmandra, and Pilogyne. ...
... With a number of new Zehenria species discovered and named in Africa in recent years (Zhou et al. 2016;Wei et al. 2017;Watuma et al. 2019;Ngumbau et al. 2020;Wei et al. 2020;Lachenaud and Schaefer 2021), a total of 78 Zehneria species have been recognized so far. As Wei et al. (2017) suspected, East Africa is confirmed as one of the centers of diversity for Zehneria species. ...
The segregated genera, Neoachmandra and Pilogyne were merged into Zehneria, based on recent molecular phylogenetic studies. Accordingly, Z. morobensis (Merr. & L.M.Perry) N.Wei, G.W.Hu & Q.F.Wang, comb. nov., a new combination in Cucurbitaceae, is proposed herein.
... Nevertheless, this treatment is not supported by the molecular phylogeny inferred by Schaefer et al. (2009), Schaefer and Renner (2011a, b) and Dwivedi et al. (2018), who argued against over-splitting of the group. East Africa has been recognised as a neglected diversity centre for Zehneria (Wei et al. 2017), with several new taxa discovered and named in recent years (Zhou et al. 2016;Wei et al. 2017;Watuma et al. 2019;Ngumbau et al. 2020). Besides, Africa was also referred to as the origin centre (Schaefer et al. 2009;Dwivedi et al. 2018), followed by recent long-distance dispersal to other continents and islands. ...
... The possible reasons to explain the paraphyly of Z. scabra in our phylogeny are 1) the nrITS provides limited phylogenetically-informative sites in Zehneria and mutations on few loci produced inconsistent phylogenetic topology; 2) the two accessions collected by Schaefer here probably should be Z. monocarpa, which was separated from Z. scabra recently (Ngumbau et al. 2020). Furthermore, we also found that species of Neoachmandra in the sense of De Wilde and Duyfjes (2006a) and De Boer et al. (2015), are paraphyly. ...
Zehneria grandibracteata, a new species of Cucurbitaceae from western Kenya, is described here, based on morphological and molecular data. It has long been misidentified as the widely-distributed species Z. scabra. However, it differs by its ovate leafy probract at the base of the inflorescences, subglabrous condition of the entire plant, shorter receptacle-tube and filaments, as well as denser and sessile inflorescences. Furthermore, the molecular phylogenetic analysis of Zehneria, based on nrITS sequences, further supports the argument that Z. grandibracteata should be segregated from Z. scabra.
The inadequacy of information impedes society’s competence to find out the cause or degree of a problem or even to avoid further losses in an ecosystem. It becomes even harder to identify all the biological resources at risk because there is no exhaustive inventory of either fauna or flora of a particular region. Coastal forests of Kenya are located in the southeast part of Kenya and are distributed mainly in four counties: Kwale, Kilifi, Lamu, and Tana River County. They are a stretch of fragmented forests ca. 30−120 km away from the Indian Ocean, and they have existed for millions of years. Diversity of both fauna and flora is very high in these relicts and the coastal forests of Eastern Africa, extending along the coast from Somalia through Kenya and Tanzania to Mozambique, are ranked among the priority biodiversity hotspot in the world. In spite of the high plant species richness and their importance towards supporting the livelihoods of the communities that live around them, floristic studies in these forests have remained poorly investigated. Hence, based on numerous field investigations, plant lists from published monograph/literature, and data from BRAHMS (Botanical Records and Herbarium Management System) database at East African herbarium (EA), we present a detailed checklist of vascular plants recorded in this region. Our results show that Kenyan coastal forests play an essential role in the flora of Kenya and the plant diversity of the coastal forests of East Africa. The checklist represents 176 families, 981 genera, 2489 species, 100 infraspecific taxa, 90 endemic plants species, 72 exotic species, and 120 species that are included in the current IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as species of major concern. We also discovered three new species to the world from these relicts. Thus, Kenyan coastal forests present a remarkable and significant center of plant diversity.
