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Studies in Cyperaceae in southern Africa 17: An examination of Schoenoplectus muricinux (C.B. CI.) J. Raynal sensu lato
Abstract
Herbarium material of the sub-tropical and southern African species, Schoenoplectus muricinux (C.B. CI.) J. Raynal sensu lato was found to comprise three different entities. Two of these are Schoenoplectus muricinux sensu stricto and Schoenoplectus muriculatus (Kuekenth.) J. Browning comb. nov., syn. Scirpus muriculatus Kuekenth. The third, with a distribution restricted to the geographic area of Maputaland, Natal, is Schoenoplectus confusus (N.E. Br.) K. Lye subsp. natalitius J. Browning (subsp. nov.). The new subspecies is established on the basis of morphological differences from the typical subspecies and its two varieties. Schoenoplectus confusus has not previously been recorded for southern Africa. A key to identification, formal descriptions, distribution maps and illustrations are provided for the two species and one subspecies in southern Africa. Schoenoplectus muricinux s.l. is briefly surveyed in sub-tropical Africa.
... although one of us (J.B.) once supported the delimitation of taxa in this complex (Browning 1991a) based on knowledge of South african populations, it later became clear that in a wider geographical context species boundaries are heavily blurred. this was also demonstrated while trying to assess the identity of 'S. ...
... taxa from east, South and Central africa the taxa belonging to the Schoenoplectus corymbosus complex remained undesignated to a section in hayasaka's monograph of the genus (hayasaka 2002). although they have been thought to belong to section Schoenoplectus, these species differ because their nutlets are often rugulose to sharply ridged (muricate) with linear nutlet epidermal cells (Browning 1990(Browning , 1991a(Browning , 1991b. also, perianth segments are usually absent, infrequently present and then reduced in number and size. ...
... also, both were geographically separated, S. rogersii only being known from Kenya and southern tanzania in east africa and further south. It was initially accepted by lye (1971) as a distinct species but later (lye 1983) reduced to a variety of S. confusus, from which it mainly differs in the presence of 4-5 perianth bristles per floret (Browning 1991a). ...
the macro-morphological variation and geographical distribution of six morphologically similar taxa from the Schoeno-plectus corymbosus complex with distinctly muricated nutlets (viz Schoenoplectus confusus subsp. confusus var. confusus and var. rogersii, S. confusus subsp. natalitius, S. muricinux, S. muriculatus and Scirpus corymbosus var. junciformis) were thoroughly studied. It is concluded that all these taxa are ill-defined and that alleged distinctive traits are weak or widely overlap. we therefore suggest expanding the description of S. muricinux (the binomial which has nomenclatural priority) and reducing the other species and their infraspecific taxa to synonyms of it. "S. sp. a" of Flora of west tropical africa (Nigeria, where it is considered a naturalized introduction of man-made habitats) is shown to also belong to S. muricinux.
... The pattern holds even when embryo data is lacking. For the tropical, largely African Schoenoplectus species nested in Schoenoplectiella s.l. that lack embryo data, but whose epidermal cell shape is known, all species possess longitudinally linear cells regardless of nutlet pericarp texture (smooth in S. corymbosus Haines & Lye, 1983;Browning, 1991aBrowning, , 1991bGordon-Gray, 1995). Because embryo and cell shape appear to be such consistently important taxonomic characters, we are confident that Schoenoplectus species not included in our J. ...
... rogersii, another taxon in the synonymy of S. muricinux (Verloove et al., 2018), is here shown to be sister to S. brachyceras, a widely accepted taxon (Browning, 1992;Jiménez-Mejías & Cabezas, 2009) also recognized as close to S. muricinux (Verloove et al., 2018), but not placed in its synonymy. Although it is clear that the limits of many of these taxa are not well defined, we re-adopt Browning's (Browning, 1991a) treatment of S. muricinux and its allies until molecular, and additional morphological and micromorphological data can be applied to the problem. ...
Molecular phylogenetic studies based on Sanger sequences have shown that Cyperaceae tribe Fuireneae s.l. is paraphyletic. However, taxonomic sampling in these studies has been poor, topologies have been inconsistent, and support for the backbone of trees has been weak. Moreover, uncertainty still surrounds the morphological limits of Schoenoplectiella, a genus of mainly small, amphicarpic annuals that was recently segregated from Schoenoplectus. Consequently, despite ample evidence from molecular analyses that Fuireneae s.l. might consist of two to four tribal lineages, no taxonomic changes have yet been made. Here, we use the Angiosperms353 enrichment panel for targeted sequencing in order to: (1) clarify the relationships of Fuireneae s.l. with the related tribes Abildgaardieae, Eleocharideae and Cypereae; (2) define the limits of Fuireneae s.s., and (3) test the monophyly of Fuireneae s.l. genera with emphasis on Schoenoplectus and Schoenoplectiella. Using more than a third of Fuireneae s.l. diversity, our phylogenomic analyses strongly support six genera and four major Fuireneae s.l. clades that we recognise as tribes: Bolboschoeneae stat.nov., Fuireneae s.s., Schoenoplecteae, and Pseudoschoeneae tr.nov. These results are consistent with morphological, micromorphological (nutlet epidermal cell shape), and embryo differences detected for each tribe. At the generic level, most sub‐Saharan African perennials currently treated in Schoenoplectus are transferred to Schoenoplectiella. Our targeted sequencing results show that these species are nested in Schoenoplectiella, and their treatment here is consistent with micromorphological and embryo characters shared by all Schoenoplectiella species. Keys to recognised tribes and genera are provided.
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1. Schoenoplectus corymbosus (Roth ex Roem. & Schult.) J. Raynal var. brachyceras (A. Rich.) K. Lye is reverted to specific status as S. brachyceras (A. Rich.) K. Lye.
