Summary
Species delineation and taxonomic status of three species of Coleus Lour. from the Guinean Highlands, West Africa, are discussed in the context of related taxa. A new species, C. ferricola Phillipson, O.Hooper & A.J.Paton, is found on iron-rich substrates. The related C. splendidus A.Chev. is recognised as a distinct species with C. djalonensis A.Chev. and C. peulhorum A.Chev. var. violacea A.Chev. placed in synonymy. The new combination, Coleus lateriticola (A.Chev.) Phillipson, O.Hooper & A.J.Paton, based on Solenostemon lateriticola A.Chev., but frequently treated at subspecific rank under Plectranthus monostachyus (P.Beauv.) B.J.Pollard, is established. These taxa are described and discussed, and distribution data, illustrations and IUCN Red List assessments are also provided.
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Acknowledgements
This research received support from the SYNTHESYS Project http://www.synthesys.info/ which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 "Capacities" Program.
The fieldwork that led to the discovery of Coleus ferricola and the new collections of C. lateriticola was conducted during the Baseline Studies of Environmental Impact Assessments conducted for the Nimba project of the Société des Mines de Fer de Guinée (SMFG) and also for the Simandou project of Simfer S.A. We would like to thank the staff of both SMFG and Simfer S.A. for their help and assistance and the opportunity to participate in these studies. We are grateful to the curators of HNG, K, MO, P, and WAG for making their collections available for consultation.
MC thanks the Darwin Initiative of the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for support in completing this paper through the Guinea IPA project (Darwin Grant 23 – 002) and Dr Magassouba, Director-General of the National Herbarium of Guinea (Universite Gamal Abdel Nasser, Conakry) for collaboration including support with permits under the terms of the Memorandum of Collaboration with RBG, Kew. OH thanks the Emily Holmes trust for supporting his fieldwork to Guinea in 2017.
We are grateful to colleagues who participated in the field work undertaken by PBP and MC, especially Ehoarn Bidault for his excellent photographs reproduced in this article, and to staff at K, MO, P and SERG herbaria for their assistance with specimen management. We also wish to thank Andrew Brown for his excellent line drawings and the reviewers, Martin Callmander and Tariq Stévart, who both provided substantial comments and suggestions that significantly improved the original manuscript.
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Phillipson, P., Hooper, O., Haba, P. et al. Three species of Coleus (Lamiaceae) from the Guinean Highlands: a new species, a new combination and clarification of Coleus splendidus. Kew Bull 74, 24 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-019-9812-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-019-9812-7