Gymnosporia emarginata

.
Gymnosporia emarginata is now considered an endemic species to southern India and Sri Lanka, and have relatively small leaves with usually a small notch in the leaf apex or is acute. The base of leaves are cordate and almost sessile or very short petioles.
Gymnosporia montana is closely related to Gymnosporia senegalensis but has larger and broader leaves. This grows in the southern India. Gymnosporia senegalensis is a widespread species from South Africa, whole of Africa to Pakistan and North Western India. This has usually narrower leaves. 
.
Flora of Davanagere District: Karnataka, India By B. K. Manjunatha, V. Krishna, T. Pullaiah (Keys- Maytenus emarginata & rothiana & Description) (Maytenus emarginata (Willd.) Ding Hou with Celastrus emarginatus Willd., Celastrus montanus Roth, Gymnosporia montana (Roth) Bentham, Gymnosporia emarginata (Willd.) Thwaites as syn.)
.
.

Chilika lake, December 2021 :: Climber for ID :: ARK2022-039: 4 high res. images.
This was clicked at Rajhans island near Behrampura on the banks of the Chilika lake, Odisha in December 2021.
Requested to please ID.

Gymnosporia only

This is Gymnosporia emarginata as per images and details herein and as per POWO and FoPI

.


Chilika lake, December 2021 :: Shrub for ID :: ARK2022-040: 4 high res. images.
This was clicked at Rajhans island near Behrampura on the banks of the Chilika lake, Odisha in December 2021.
Requested to please ID.
My initial thought was Gymnosporia rothiana, but the flower pics did not match.

This is Gymnosporia emarginata as per images and details herein and as per POWO and FoPI

.

/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Maytenus%20emarginata-2.jpg
/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Maytenus%20emarginata-1.jpg
Maytenus emarginata from TN : Attachments (2). 7 posts by 5 authors.
Attaching photos (very poor but) of Maytenus emarginata from Tamil Nadu.
is the id correct?

This is definitively G. emarginata with its smaller leaves!

We may debate whether our specimens are correctly named under Maytenus or Gymnosporia, but one thing is quite certain Maytenus senegalensis (Lam.) Exell. and M. emarginata (Willd.) Ding Hou are two distinct species, former primarily an African species and latter S. E. Asia. Whereas K B Robson, the World authority on the Group considers Indian Gymnosporia montana as synonym of M. senegalensis, Ding Hou earlier (Fl. Males., 1962) had included Indian G. montana as synonym of M. emarginata. We can debate whether our specimens belong to which of the two species, or both occur in India, but it would be totally wrong to treat M. senegalensis and M. emarginata as synonyms. No major author has done that.

We have seen other species from the genus earlier i.e. senegalensis and rothiana. Now thanks for showing the species emarginata.
From the above discussions whatever I could conclude is that this species is emarginata. (Genus name might be any of the synonyms)

Dear … Since you are an authority on the group, I think you can throw best light on Indian species of Maytenus (and possible synonyms from Indian perspective) and provide differentiating features of these, so that we don’t keep on confusing about these species, and know where our specimens really belong.

Some relevant extracts from another thread on Gymnosporia montana: efi thread:
“… I sent the pictures to Marie Jordaan, who is currently revising the genus Gymnosporia. She feels the name Gymnosporia montana should be applied to these. It is often that thorns are absent from tree.
As we are currently using Gymnosporia senegalensis is a African species that occur up to Pakistan and possibly in India. The other species of Gymnosporia occurring in Southern India and Sri Lanka is Gymnosporia emarginata, a species that extend to Australia.”

 

.

References:
Flora of China (Gymnosporia emarginata (Willdenow) Thwaites with Celastrus emarginatus Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 1: 1128. 1798; Catha emarginata (Willdenow) G. Don; Gymnosporia trilocularis Hayata; Maytenus emarginata (Willdenow) Ding Hou)
India Biodiversity Portal (Gymnosporia emarginata (Willd.) Thwaites with Maytenus emarginata (Willd.) Ding Hou, Celastrus emarginatus Willd., Catha emarginata (Willdenow) G. Don &  Gymnosporia trilocularis Hayata   as syn.)   
Flora of Davanagere District: Karnataka, India By B. K. Manjunatha, V. Krishna, T. Pullaiah (Keys- Maytenus emarginata & rothiana & Description) (Maytenus emarginata (Willd.) Ding Hou with Celastrus emarginatus Willd., Celastrus montanus Roth, Gymnosporia montana (Roth) Bentham, Gymnosporia emarginata (Willd.) Thwaites as syn.) 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *