KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 DOI 10.1007/S12225-015-9560-2 ISSN: 0075-5974 (print) ISSN: 1874-933X (electronic) Tarenna hutchinsonii (Rubiaceae) redelimited, and T. agnata described from W Africa Martin Cheek1, Lucia Lopez Poveda1,3 & Denise Molmou2 Summary. We show that two distinct species have been confused under the name of Tarenna hutchinsonii Bremek. T. hutchinsonii itself appears to be confined to its type location in Sierra Leone (where it is presumed extinct) and to several newly discovered locations in Guinea and Liberia. It has been assessed as Critically Endangered using the 2012 IUCN standard. Material from Ghana and Ivory Coast previously ascribed to T. hutchinsonii is here described as T. agnata Cheek & Lopez Poveda, and assessed as Critically Endangered, although it may well already be globally extinct. Key Words. Conservation, forest, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Ivory-Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone. Introduction In May 2012 Dr Maria Alvarez of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew identified a recent collection from Guinea-Conakry (Cheek 16667) as Tarenna hutchinsonii Bremek., the first record of this species then known at Kew from the country. While reviewing the identification, the first authors of this paper observed that the specimens at Kew (Aubréville 1033 from Ivory-Coast; J. B. Hall in GC43188 and Vigne 3505 from Ghana) identified as this species, differed consistently in several characters from the type of T. hutchinsonii collected from Sierra Leone (Table 1 below). It became clear that two different species had been confused. The second, lacking a legitimate name, is formally described below as T. agnata Cheek & Lopez Poveda. It was probably first recognised as a distinct entity by the late and renowned J. B. Hall (Hall & Swaine 1981: 348), as Tarenna sp. aff. laurentii, and only later confused with other species by other botanists. The confusion can be traced back to Aké Assi (2002) who cites material of Tarenna agnata as T. hutchinsonii. In Degreef (2006) the description and key to T. hutchinsonii combine features of both species, and specimens of both species are cited under this name. Hawthorne & Jongkind (2006) followed Degreef’s advice in applying the name T. hutchinsonii to the taxon of Ghana and Ivory Coast, that is, T. agnata. They state that it was previously referred to as T. cf. laurentii in Ghana, and that in some ways it resembles T. vignei Hutch. & Dalziel, the only other lowland forest Tarenna tree to 10 m, but that the leaves dry dark and the inflorescence is hairier. T. vignei can easily be distinguished from T. agnata even when vegetative. This is because the stipule in T. vignei (illustrated in Hawthorne & Jongkind (2006)) has an acutely triangular or mucronate apex, and the larger part of the central portion is glossy black and flat. In T. agnata the stipule apex is rounded or obtuse and the central portion is highly wrinkled and not flat. T. vignei further differs from T. agnata in the length of the corolla tube (9 – 10 mm; not 2 mm). Tarenna agnata Cheek & Lopez Poveda sp. nov. Type: Ivory Coast, Bde Man à Danané^, buds, 12 March 1932, Aubréville 1033 (holotype K!; isotypes BR image!, P image!). http://www.ipni.org/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77144181-1 Tarenna vignei Hutch. & Dalziel var. subglabra Keay sensu Keay (1963: 134) pro parte quoad Aubréville 1033. Tarenna sp. aff. laurentii sensu Hall & Swaine (1981: 348). Tarenna laurentii auct., non (De Wild.) Garcia, sensu J. B. Hall in adnot. Herb. Kew, Dec. 1974; Hawthorne (1990: 35). Tarenna hutchinsonii sensu Aké Assi quoad Aubréville 1033 (Aké Assi 2002: 103); Degreef pro parte (2006: 84); Hawthorne & Jongkind (2006: 604); non Bremekamp (1934). Tree 12 – 15 m tall, to 30 cm diam. at 1.5 m from ground, bark thick, grooved, slash creamy, darkening Accepted for publication 4 February 2015. 1 Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB, UKR e-mail: l.lopez@kew.org, m.cheek@kew.org 2 Herbier National de Guinée, Université Gamal Abdel Nasser, Conakry BP 680, République de GuinéeR 3 Current address: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 5BD, UK. e-mail: l.lopez@nhm.ac.uk © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015 12 Page 2 of 9 KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 Table 1. The more significant characters differentiating Tarenna hutchinsonii and T. agnata. Character Habitat Tarenna hutchinsonii Tarenna agnata Lowland evergreen forest on flat, deep soils Habit Shrub or tree 4 – 6 (– 8) m tall, 1.5 – 2 (– 10) cm diam. at 1.5 m from ground Leaf-blade surface texture and Thinly leathery drying metallic glossy, drying colour on drying black, beginning with quaternary veins Quaternary veins Conspicuous to the naked eye Domatia Inconspicuous, glabrous or with a few hairs 0.4 mm long; hairs absent or up to 10 (Fig. 2B) Stipules at non-branching nodes Drying matt green to dark brown, cylindrical, sheath 2.5 – 3 × 2.5 – 3 mm, limb narrowly triangular, 6 × 5 mm, apex acute (Fig. 2C) Calyx indumentum Margin with patent simple hairs (Fig. 2J) Corolla tube inner surface Glabrous apart from a dense band of bristle hairs at insertion of stamina filaments (Fig. 2H) Style Sparsely puberulent Stigma Longitudinally 12-winged (Fig. 2L) on exposure, branches drooping (J. B. Hall in GC43188). Leafy stems slightly square in section, third internode from apex (2.1 –) 4 – 8.3 cm long, 1.5 – 2 mm diam., epidermis glabrous, smooth, drying dark green, lenticels absent. Branches slender, opposite, arising nearly at 45° angles to the main stem. Leaves opposite and decussate, anisophyllous at alternate nodes (every other node is anisophyllous), length:width ratio c. 1:1.6; petioles 1 – 2.5 cm long; leaf-blade drying matt dark green or green-brown, papery, elliptic 7.7 – 11.5 (– 13) × 2 – 3.5 (– 4.4) cm, base cuneate, usually asymmetrical, apex rounded with acumen 0.9 – 1.5 cm long, margins flat, sometimes revolute, midrib and secondary veins canaliculate on upper surface, secondary veins pairs 6 – 9, curving upwards near the blade margin, uniting with the vein above to form an inconspicuous marginal vein; intersecondary veins present; tertiary veins conspicuous, 1 – 3 connecting the secondaries; quaternary and quinquenary venation faintly visible on lower surface with hand lens, not raised on upper surface, glabrous (apart from domatia), domatia 0.4 – 0.8 × 0.7 – 1.2 mm, sparsely simple hairy, slightly or not excavated, hairs 15 – 40, 0.1 – 0.2 mm long. Stipules drying black, glossy, wrinkled, margin pale brown, sheath 0.5 – 1 × 2 – 2.6 mm, limb broadly triangular, 0.5 – 1 mm long; apex obtuse or rounded, sometimes slightly emarginated, glabrous outside. Inflorescences with (15 –) 30 – 70 flowers terminal on main or lateral branches (not in Aubréville 1033), sessile, wider than long 3.5 – 4 × 2.5 cm (or ratio c. 1.4 – 1.6), 3-branched at the base, sparsely pubescent, bracts glabrous outside; pedicels terete 2.5 – 3 × 0.5 – 0.6 mm, puberulous with patent simple hairs 0.1 – 0.3 mm long. Flowers hermaphrodite, 5-merous. Calyx hypanthium cylindrical, 2 – 2.5 mm long, outer surface glabrous, rugulose – bullate (excepting lobes); lobes 5, transversally elliptic-reniform 0.8 – × 1.3 – 1.4 mm apex shallowly © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015 Transition forest on dry hills (near boundary with woodland) Tree 12 – 15 m tall, to 30 cm diam. at 1.5 m from ground Papery drying matt dark green or green-brown overall Not conspicuous Conspicuous, sparsely hairy, hairs 0.4 – 1.2 mm long, hairs 15 – 40 (Fig. 1E) Drying black, glossy, sheath 0.5 – 1 × 2 – 2.6 mm, limb broadly triangular, 0.5 – 1 mm long, apex obtuse, sometimes emarginated (Fig. 1C) Margin glabrous (Fig. 1J) Sparsely hairy throughout, lacking band of hairs at insertion of filaments (Fig. 1H) Densely hairy Longitudinally furrowed (Fig. 1L) retuse, minutely and irregularly lobed, outer surface with midrib keel 0.25 mm long, inner surface with a line of colleters 0.1 mm long at junction with tube, otherwise glabrous. Corolla (pre-anthetic) probably white at anthesis, in bud cylindric-obovoid c. 9 × 2 mm, apex rounded; tube gradually dilating towards apex, 2 – 2.3 × 1 mm, outer surface glabrous, inner surface uniformly patent-puberulent, hairs 0.1 – 0.5 mm long; lobes 5, probably patent at anthesis, oblong-elliptic 6 – 6.8 × 1.5 – 2.1 mm, apex asymmetric, subapically retuse, lacking appendages or keel. Stamens 5, exserted, filaments inserted below sinuses of corolla lobes, ligulate 0.8 mm long, glabrous, inconspicuous; anthers narrowly oblong 6.2 × 0.5 mm, inconspicuously hastate, connective apical, mucronate, 0.2 mm long. Style-stigma exserted, cylindrical 7 – 7.5 × 0.6 mm; style 2.5 mm long, densely patent hairy, hairs as inner corolla tube; stigma glabrous, wider than style, longitudinally furrowed, apex rounded. Disc cylindrical, 0.4 × 0.8 mm. Fruits oblate, less usually globose, 3.5 – 4 × 4 – 5, apex with disc 1.25 – 1.5 mm diam. and calyx 0.5 mm diam. domed; surface reticulate. Seeds not seen. Fig. 1. RECOGNITION. Tarenna agnata is similar to T. hutchinsonii Bremek., differing in being a tree 12 – 15 m tall of transition forest on dry hills (not a shrub or tree 4 – 6 (– 8) m tall of lowland evergreen forest), leaves drying matt dark green or green-brown overall (not glossy, black, beginning with the quaternary veins), stipules of non-branching nodes with sheath length:breadth <0.5:1, limb broadly triangular, apex obtuse (not 1:1, limb narrowly triangular, apex acute), calyx margin glabrous (not with patent simple hairs). DISTRIBUTION. Ivory Coast and Ghana. Map 1. SPECIMENS EXAMINED. IVORY COAST. Dix-Huit Montagnes Province, Route Man à Danané, (buds) 13 March 1932, Aubréville 1033 (K! holotype; BR, P image! isotypes); KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 Page 3 of 9 12 Fig. 1. Tarenna agnata. A habit, flowering branch (outline of large leaf behind); B ibid. showing architecture; C stipule at leaf node; D stipule at branching node; E domatia, lower surface of leaf-blade; F inflorescence, apex of main axis, flowers pre-anthetic; G flower before anthesis; H corolla, opened to show inner surface; J calyx, free part, opened to show outer surface; K calyxhypanthium, sublongitudinal section showing ovary locule, disc and inner surface of free calyx (style and corolla truncated); L stylestigma; M anthers, abaxial surface (leaf), and adaxial surface (right). A, C – E from Hall in GC43188; B from Vigne 3505; F – M from Aubréville 1033. DRAWN BY ANDREW BROWN. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015 12 Page 4 of 9 KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 Map 1. Distribution of Tarenna agnata. Agnebi Province, Agboville (fr.) 2 Aug. 1932, Aubréville 1501 (BR, P (P03923651 and P03923650) images!). GHANA. Eastern Province, Volta R. F.R. (buds), 13 Feb. 1972, J. B. Hall GC43188 (BR, GC, K!); Ashanti Province: Aboma F.R. (buds), Vigne 3505 (BR, GC, K!); Brong Ahafo Province: Pamu Berekum, J. Mensah 5996 (GC) (cited in Hawthorne & Jongkind (2006)). HABITAT. Dry semideciduous transition forest at the boundary between Upper Guinean forest and Sudanian woodland and wooded grassland, usually on rocky hills according to Hawthorne & Jongkind (2006) (Ghana). This falls in the Guinea-Congolia/Sudania regional transition zone of White (1983). CONSERVATION STATUS. All confirmed specimens of Tarenna agnata were made between 1932 and 1972 and no new records have been made in 42 years (but see notes below), despite moderately intense botanical surveys in both Ghana and Ivory Coast. In Ivory Coast between 1958 and 1993, more than 80% of rainforest disappeared — about 60,000 km2 (Chatelain et al. 2003: 2b), leaving only 6% of the previously forested part of the country with forest cover, and deforestation continues. Ghana is reported as having lost 33.7% of its forest cover between 1990 and 2010 (around 2.508 million hectares) (mongabay.com, accessed 27 Sept. 2013). Although its main production timber forest reserves in semi-deciduous forest are well protected, its areas of transitional forest, at the periphery of the forest block, have seen enormous losses. All three of the Forest © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015 Reserves from which Tarenna agnata was recorded (Pammu Berekum, Volta River and Aboma) now have almost no original forest left due to fires and timber plantations (Mike Swaine pers. comm. to Cheek Aug. 2013; Hawthorne & Abu-Juam 1993). It is significant that although botanical surveys were conducted at all three reserves in either 1990 or 1991 (Hawthorne & Abu-Juam 1993), the species was not recorded. It is quite possible that T. agnata is already globally extinct. However, until dedicated searches are made for the species the question remains open. We here assess the species as Critically Endangered, under both Criterion A and D. Under Criterion A2, we estimate that more than 80% reduction in the population has occurred in the last three generations, using loss of its transitional forest habitat as a proxy and estimating that a generation exceeds 35 years in duration. Under Criterion D, we calculate that only 6 mature individuals of this species have ever been recorded (each being represented by one of the specimens cited). And moreover there is a high probability that all of these have been lost due to destruction of their habitat. It is to be hoped that further information or future surveys may show this species to survive and to merit a lower conservation assessment. Should the species be found alive, it should be propagated in a garden both as insurance against its extinction and to allow the possibility of reinforcement/ reintroduction to the wild at safe sites. KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 Page 5 of 9 12 ETYMOLOGY. From the Greek, agnate, meaning unknown, forgotten or overlooked. NOTES. The range of this species may extend into Guinea and it should be looked for there, as well as in any original habitat that might survive at its historic locations. Since Aké Assi (2002: 103) cited an undoubted specimen of Tarenna agnata (Aubreville 1033) as T. hutchinsonii, it is possible that the other two specimens that he cited under that name are also T. agnata. These are: Fôrèt d’Adiopodoumé, Feb. 1956, Aké Assi 6072 and Région de San Pédro, Forèt de Monogaga, May 1997, Aké Assi s.n. These specimens have not been seen by us and are probably held in Ivory Coast at UCJ. We have not found duplicates in European herbaria such as P. If confirmed as T. agnata it suggests that the species is most likely to survive in Ivory Coast. However, Aké Assi (2002) also states of this species (translated from the French): BRare, in the course of disappearing from the flora of Ivory Coast^. based on a confusion of T. hutchinsonii with T. agnata. That of Hawthorne & Jongkind (2006) refers to T. agnata. Hutchinson & Dalziel (1931) described Pavetta nigescens in Flora of West Tropical Africa and refer there to a formal description in Kew Bulletin, but this appears never to have been published. Bremekamp (1934), recognising that the species is in fact a Tarenna, and that the epithet in that genus was already occupied (by Tarenna nigrescens Hiern), coined the new name but did not add any extra data. Hutchinson & Dalziel’s conclusion that their species was a Pavetta is understandable in view of the Pavettoid inflorescence branching and since only immature flower buds were available. Moreover, the stipules being matt, not glossy black as is normal in Tarenna, do not suggest that genus. There is no doubt, however, that Bremekamp’s placement is correct since there are 5 petals and bacterial nodules have not been seen (not 4 petals with nodules present, as usual in Pavetta). Tarenna hutchinsonii Tarenna hutchinsonii was known for nearly 100 years only from a single locality, Kenema in Sierra Leone, albeit from several collections (N. W. Thomas 7500, 7527, 7536, 7834, all K!). Kenema is both a large town and also the name of a large province, so the exact locality of the type remains unknown. It has not been seen in that country since, despite subsequent survey work and has been considered to be probably extinct there due to forest habitat destruction (Cheek 2013). In 2013 the second author, while in Kenema Province, searched for the species for several days without success. In 2012 it was discovered in a patch of forest on an inselberg in coastal Guinea (Cheek 16667) and considered to be specific to this habitat. However, the discovery of additional collections (O. O. Haba 25, Yonon Botanic Team 77, Jongkind 10285, 10505, 11831) of what appear to be this species from GuinéeForestière and Liberia suggest that this is in fact a lowland evergreen forest species and not inselbergspecific. For the moment these additional collections have only been viewed as photographs. A distinctive feature of this species is that, when dried, the leaves turn glossy jet black, beginning with the quaternary veins. Further, the stipules dry matt green to dark brown and not, as is usual in the genus, glossy black. Although the additional specimens show these features, they are discordant in their longitudinally ridged fruits. Those from coastal Guinea (Molmou 598!) lack such ridges, but this might be due to their over-maturity when collected. T. hutchinsonii has previously only been briefly and incompletely described in Hutchinson & Dalziel (1931) and in Keay (1963). Here we give a more complete description. The description of Degreef (2006) is Tarenna hutchinsonii Bremek. (Bremekamp 1934: 200); Keay (1963: 135). Type: as for Pavetta nigrescens Hutch. & Dalziel. Pavetta nigrescens Hutch. & Dalziel (1931: 91). Types: Sierra Leone, Kennema [Kenema], Thomas 7500 (K lectotype; designated in Degreef 2006). Additional original syntypes: Sierra Leone, Kennema [Kenema] Thomas 7527, 7536 & 7834 (all K). Shrub to small tree to 4 – 6 (– 8) m tall, 1.5 – 2 (– 10) cm diam. at 1.5 m from ground, moderately branched. Leafy stems slightly square in section in distal nodes, third internode from apex 0.5 – 10 cm long, 1 – 2 mm diam. Epidermis glabrous, woody, lenticels absent. Branches slender, opposite, arising nearly at 45° angles to the main stem. Leaves opposite, decussate, anisophyllous at alternate nodes (every other node is anisophyllous), length:width ratio c. 1:1.5 – 1.9; petiole 0.2 – 1.2 cm long; leaf-blade drying glossy black or dark green, thinly leathery, elliptic 4.3 – 11.5 × 2.5 – 5 cm, base cuneate, usually symmetrical, apex rounded, acumen 0.7 – 1.3 cm long, margins minutely revolute, rarely flat (Cheek 16651), midrib yellow-orange below, midrib canaliculated on upper surface, secondary veins 6 – 9 on each side of the midrib, arising at c. 45° from the midrib and arcing towards the apex, weakly united near the margin by tertiary veins, tertiary and quaternary veins reticulate, inter-secondary veins not developed, secondary, tertiary and quaternary veins prominent on the upper and the lower surface, visible with naked eye, glabrous (apart from domatia), domatia present on all leaves, but not in every axil, with well marked circular cavity c. 0.4 mm diam., hairs 0 – 10, 0.1 – 0.2 mm long if present. Stipules of nodes 1 – 3 below stem apex (those which lack axillary branches), drying matt green to dark © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015 12 Page 6 of 9 KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 Fig. 2. Tarenna hutchinsonii. A habit, flowering branch; B leaf-blade, detail of lower surface showing midrib and domatia; C typical stipule; D atypical, bifurcate stipule; E older stipule at node with axillary branches; F inflorescence; G flower, pre-anthetic; H corolla, cut, opened and spread to show adnate anthers; J calyx (free part) cut and opened, outer surface; K stamens, outer surface (left), inner surface (right); L style-stigma with details of transverse section, (left); M base of flower, longitudinal section, showing disc and ovary, and insertion of style-stigma and corolla; N fruit (old); P seeds, dorsal view (left), ventral view (above), side view (below). A, C & D from Thomas 7500; B, N & P from Molmou 545; E – M from Cheek 16667. DRAWN BY ANDREW BROWN. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015 KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 brown, tubular, more or less cylindrical (Fig. 2C), broadest and slightly inflated at the base, sheath 2.5 – 3 × 2.5 – 3 mm, limb narrowly triangular, c. 6 × 5 mm, not sheathing, including the awn-like apex 3 – 3.5 mm long (Fig. 2E). Inflorescences pavettoid, i.e. terminal on lateral branches 15 – 20 cm long that arise 5 – 10 cm below the stem axis the apex of which sometimes remains vegetative; central branch of the inflorescence slightly longer and with slightly more flowers than the lateral (axillary) inflorescence branches, moderately densely hairy with white simple hairs 0.15 – 0.45 mm long, appressed to patent; peduncle 1.2 – 2 cm long; lowermost bract with foliar lobes variously developed, 2 – 8 × 1 – 1.5 mm; stipular lobe broadly triangular 1 × 2.5 mm, apex subacuminate; first rachis internode about as long as peduncle, second and third internodes contracted, 1 – 3 mm long; bracts reduced, foliar lobes 2 mm long; pedicels 0.5 – 1.5 mm long. Flowers sweetly perfumed as those of Coffea (Cheek pers. obs. 2014), hermaphrodite, 5-merous, homostylous. Calyx hypanthium cylindricalcampanulate 3 – 3.4 mm long, free part 1.1 – 1.6 mm, tubular part 0.4 – 0.8 mm long, lobes imbricate, semi-circular 0.7 × 1.7 – 1.9 mm, margins with patent simple hairs 0.1 – 0.5 mm long, otherwise glabrous. Corolla (pre-anthetic) white, tube cylindrical, 1.5 – 1.6 mm long, outer surface glabrous, inner surface with a ring of erect simple hairs 0.4 – 0.5 mm long at junction with appendages and keel absent. Stamens exserted, filaments arising from corolla tube hair ring, erect, 1.2 mm long, glabrous; anthers oblong, 4 Page 7 of 9 12 – 4.5 × 0.6 mm, apex with connective mucron 2 mm long; filament inserted 0.5 mm from the anther base. Style-stigma exserted, cylindrical, 5.7 mm long; style 2.25 × 0.5 mm, sparsely patent puberulent, hairs 0.1 mm long; stigma 3.5 mm long, arms two, closely connate, 12-winged; disk cylindrical 0.2 mm long. Infrutescence not accrescent. Fruit globose 4.5 × 5.5 mm, smooth, crowned by subcylindric calyx 0.3 – 0.5 × 2 mm. Seeds depressed, globose, 1.5 × 3.5 – 4 × 3.5 – 4 mm, hilum c. 1.2 mm diam. Fig. 2. DISTRIBUTION. Guinea-Conakry, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Map 2. SPECIMENS EXAMINED. GUINEA-CONAKRY. Forécariah Prefecture, road from Maferenya to Kabak island, Singuilin village, Moofanyi inselberg 9°26 15.6"N 13°22 56.2"W, 120 m, (st.) 5 May 2012, Cheek 16651 (HNG!, K!); ibid., buds 5 May 2012, Cheek 16667 (HNG, K!); ibid., 9°26 20.2"N 13°2258.6"W, 29 m, fr. 30 Sept. 2012, Molmou 545 (HNG, K!, WAG); ibid., buds Molmou 581 (HNG); ibid., 9°26 20.0"N 13°22 59.0"W, 30 m, fl. 4 June 2013, Molmou 598 (HNG, K!); ibid., 9°26 23.5"N 13°23 1.3"W, 12 m, st. Couch 691, 692 (HNG, K!); Nzérékoré, Nimba Mts, Fôret de Gbié, 7°39 N 8°20 W, 586 m, fl. 17 Dec. 2008, O. O. Haba 25 (BR, SL, WAG image viewed!); Nzérékoré, near Bokoume village 7°40 N 9°16 W, 441 m, fr. 30 April 2011, Jongkind 10505 (BR, MO, P (P06233484 image!), WAG); Nzérékoré, Diani R. 7°59 N 9°7 W, 445 m, st. 10 May 2011, Yonon Botanic Team 77 (WAG! Image viewed only); Map 2. Distribution of Tarenna hutchinsonii. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015 12 Page 8 of 9 Nzérékoré to Seredu, Yonon Fôret Classé, Koya Village, 08°02 40.3"N, 09°04 04.3"W, st. 26 Jan. 2014, Cheek 17093 (HNG, K); ibid., fl. 26 Jan. 2014, Cheek 17094 (BR, HNG, K, P, SERG, WAG); ibid., fl. 26 Jan. 2014, Cheek 17099 (HNG, K). SIERRA LEONE. Kenema buds 20 Jan. 1914, Thomas 7500, 7527, 7536 (BR, K!, L); ibid., buds Thomas 7834 (BR, K!); without location, Afzelius s.n. (BM!, BR). LIBERIA. Lofa, E of Nekebuzu 8°8 N 9°36 W, 425 m, buds 8 March 2013, Jongkind 11831 (BR, K, MO, P, WAG); Gbarpolu, Kpelle Forest, South of Henrys Town 7°14 N 10°22 W, 400 m, buds 20 Dec. 2010, Jongkind 10285 (BR, COI, DSM, K, MA, MO, WAG image viewed only!). HABITAT AND ECOLOGY. Lowland evergreen forest; 300 – 450 m alt. CONSERVATION STATUS. Tarenna hutchinsonii was recently assessed as Critically Endangered under Criterion D of IUCN (2012) based on less than 50 mature individuals being known from several locations, some of which are threatened with destruction (Cheek 2013). Currently it is estimated that 26 mature individuals exist. About 40 individuals are recorded at the Singuilin location. They vary from 1 – 4 m in height. Flowering has only been recorded in 17 of the larger (3 – 4 m tall) individuals, which are evidently mature, but of those only three have set fruit (Molmou pers. comm. Sept. 2013). The remaining, c. 23 individuals must be considered juveniles. Recruitment may be periodic since no individuals were found below 1 m in height. Although plants in the wild at Singuilin appear healthy, three species of pathological fungus and one Tobamorvirus were identified from cuttings material in quarantine at Kew being used to multiply plants for reintroduction to safe sites in Guinea (S. Redstone pers. comm. to Cheek). These may pose a threat to the species in the wild at Singuilin although the plants appear healthy. Layering (vegetative apomixis) has been observed in the wild at Singuilin. Genetic fingerprint research is under way at Kew to estimate the number of genetic individuals present at the Singuilin locality so as to better develop a breeding programme. In January 2014, 10 individuals, of which the five largest were mature and in flower, were found in a pocket of forest in the Yonon Fôret Classé. It is to be hoped that additional individuals will be discovered at further localities in the course of future field surveys in Guinea-Conakry and Sierra Leone. However, despite some recent targeted surveys in Sierra Leone led by the second author at Kenema in the Gola Forest, and by Xander van der Burgt in and near the Sula Mountains during the years 2009 – 2014, this species has not been seen in Sierra Leone in the last 100 years. ETYMOLOGY. Named for John Hutchinson, Kew botanist who, with Dalziel, first recognised the species as distinct in 1931 (Bremekamp 1934). © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015 KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 LOCAL NAMES & USES. Tatabeti (Limba); Kargo (Loko); Ngeje or Ngongie (Mende), e-kant-e-kant or ekbak (Temne); no uses recorded (source N. W. Thomas cited by Burkhill 1997: 630) NOTES. This species is distinctive in that the leaves dry glossy black, hence the original epithet Pavetta nigrescens. Very fast dried specimens dry mainly bright green, but even in this case the blackening process can be seen to have begun, with the tertiary and quaternary veins having become glossy jet black. Acknowledgements We thank Amalia Fernandez-Bilbao and Daniel Eason for supporting detailed studies and conservation efforts on Tarenna hutchinsonii in Guinea-Conakry. Michel Bureau and Guy Poirier provided the logistical support for the mission which resulted in our discovery of T. hutchinsonii in coastal Guinea in 2012, precipitating the research which resulted in this paper. The first author thanks Pierre K. Haba for his assistance in the field in Guinée-Forestière in 2014 in discovering an additional subpopulation of T. hutchinsonii, and Suzanne Mondoux, Thomas Williams and Sean Parker for arranging logistical support. Dr Layaly Camara, Centre Forestiere Nzérékoré and Dr Basile Camara, Herbier National de Guineé-UGAN, Conakry, provided permits. We are grateful to Patrick Ekpe for searching the GC herbarium for collections of Tarenna agnata, providing us with data on the condition of forest at its known locations in Ghana and for pointing us to Hawthorne & Abu-Juam (1993). Mike Swaine gave helpful personal observations on forest loss in forest reserves in Ghana. Two anonymous reviewers provided constructive comments on an earlier version of this paper. References Aké Assi, L. (2002). Flore de la Côte-D’Ivoire: Catalogue Systématique, Biogeography et écologie. Vol. II. Boissiera 58: 1 – 401. Bremekamp, C. E. B. (1934). A Monograph of the Genus Pavetta L. Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 37: 200. Burkhill, H. M. (1997). The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Ed. 2. Vol 4. Families M – R. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Chatelain, C., Dao, H., Gautier, L. & Spichiger, R. (2003). Forest cover changes in Côte D’Ivoire and Upper Guinea. In: L. Poorter, F. Bongers, F. N. Kouame & W. D. Hawthorne (eds.), Biodiversity of West African Forests: An Ecological Atlas of Woody Plant Species, pp. 15 – 32. CABI, Oxford. Cheek, M. (2013). Tarenna hutchinsonii. In: IUCN (2013). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. KEW BULLETIN (2015) 70:12 Version 2013.1. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/21480902/0. Downloaded on 2 October 2013. Degreef, J. (2006). 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Mongabay.com. TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Deforestation rates tables and charts. Ghana Forest Information and Data. Accessed 27 September 2013, from http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/ 2000/Ghana.htm White, F. (1983). The Vegetation of Africa. UNESCO, Paris. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2015