A Revision of the Chinese Millettia (Papilionoideae) (Cont.)

Abstract

Abstract:

The genus Millettia Wight et Arn. contains about 200 species and is distri-

buted mainly in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa, only a small

proportion of species extending towards the northern and southeastern coast of Austra-

lia. About half of species are found in Asia, with the greatest concentration in the

area from the eastern Himalayas to the hills of Indo-China, i.e. the valleys Irrawaddy,

Salween and upper Mekong (Lan-tsang River). Then, there are much fewer species

occurring in central and southeastern China, Japan, Indo-China, Malaysia, Indonesia,

Philippines, India and Pakistan.

Twigs or stems of some Millettia species arc being used ethnopharmacologically as

drugs for oral preparations in China. They appear to possess a tendency of so-called

“carminative or stimulant” activities in many home-remedies, but most plants of this

genus are poisonous and have recommended as a source of insecticide or used by the

natives to stupefy fish. The scientific and common names of many species are puzzled

in a confused manner. In the present paper the author reports 35 species with 11 va-

rieties from China, of which five species with four varieties are described as new, eight

species are new records to the Chinese flora.

Since Wight and Arnott established the genus in 1834, it has had a taxonomic his-

tory with so many errors and confusions. The major contribution to the taxonomy of

this genus was made by Dunn in 1912, who monographed the genus on a worldwide

scale and grouped all 138 species known by then into 15 sections based on morpholog-

ical characters, while in the Chinese flora 6 sections and 14 species were recognized.

Dunn’s work is not very satisfactory because the relationships between sections and de-

scriptions of species are disordered and confused. Unfortunately, there was little work

on this genus for almost seventy years.

Here the phylogenetic relationships among thirty-five species of Chinese Millettia

were investigated by using the Wagner’s method, and twenty-six characters were used

and assigned as primitive or specialized states. All taxa recognized ave considered as

Operational Taxonomic Units, to which linked are the character divergence values for

each. Then the mutual groupings between taxa are determined. The Wagner tree

resulted from above procedure indicats that the Millettia species in China belong to six

phylogenetic groups, which ate treated here as sections, i.e. Acinacicarpae, Macrosper-

mae, Millettia, Corynecarpae, Brevistylae and Curvistylae. The section Acinacicarpae is

characterized by its tropical tree habit, axillary racemiferous panicle, scimitar-shaped

and flat pod, which is the widest in the upper part. The section Millettia includes those

species from erect shrubs to moderate-sized trees, and they are probably widely distri-

buted in the mesophytic forests. The section Macrospermae has developed a type of

large tropical and subtropical liana, with distinctly turgid pod which may indicate a

specialized and isolated group of the genus. The following sections are characterized

by terminal and axillary panicled inflorescences, climbing or twining shrub habits. The

section Eurybotryae and section Curvistylae are the progressive groups which extend

northward into warm-temperate regions. And the section Corynecarpae seems to form

an intermediate form between the raceme and the panicle. Besides sectional relationsh-

ips the species ars also recognized based on distinct combinations of morphological

characters, geographic ranges, and ecological characteristics. Among the species this

paper deals with 18 are endemic to China, and the rest are also found in northern India

and Indo-China.

Key words: Papilionoideae, Millettia, Sect.Acinacicarpae, Sect.Macrospermae, Sect.Millettia, Sect.Corynecarpae, Sect.Eurybotryae, Sect.Curvistylae

Wei Zhi. A Revision of the Chinese Millettia (Papilionoideae) (Cont.)[J]. .

[1]	QIAN Yi-Yong. Milletia pendula Benth. (Papilionaceae), a new record to China [J]. , 2001, 39(5): 464-465.
[2]	Qian Yi-yong. A New Species of Millettia from Yunnan, China [J]. , 1997, 35(2): 183-185.
[3]	Wei Zhi. New Taxa of Leguminosae from S.-W. China [J]. , 1989, 27(1): 75-76.
[4]	Chang Roh-Hwei. A Study on the Chinese Ormosia Jacks. (Cont.) [J]. , 1984, 22(2): 110-118.

A Revision of the Chinese Millettia (Papilionoideae) (Cont.)

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