Coleochloa domensis Muasya & D.A.Simpson

Muasya, A.M., Harvey, Y., Cheek, M., Tah, K. & Simpson, D.A. 2010. Coleochloa domensis (Cyperaceae),a new epiphytic species from Cameroon. Kew Bulletin 65: 323. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-010-9194-3

Type

Cameroon, North West Province, Bamenda Highlands, Noni subdivision, near Dom village, forest around Kinjinjang Rock, 25 Sept. 2006, Cheek 13438 (holotypusK!; isotypus YA!).

Morphology General Habit

A tufted perennial, lacking stolons or rhizomes

Morphology Culms

Culms 15 – 30 cm tall, thickness at base including leaf sheaths 3 – 5 mm

Morphology Leaves

Leaves distichously arranged; sheaths open, margins overlapping, glabrous, 2 – 5 mm long; blades flat, glabrous except upper surface of midrib which is densely hairy, 15.5 – 30.7 cm long and 2 – 4 mm wide, deciduous; ligule a dense band of white hairs, 1 – 1.5 mm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescence a stiff panicle (not pendulous), spikes 2 – 4 per leaf axil, peduncles unequal in length and longest to 3 cm. Spikes comprising 6 – 10 spikelets; each spikelet bearing 4 – 6 florets; florets male or female

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Spikelets

Spikelets to 3 mm long with protruding seeds excluded

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Bracts Glume

Glumes distichously arranged, to 2.5 mm long, minutely papillose

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Male flowers with 3 stamens, anthers to 1.2 mm long. Nutlet brownish, pilose, 5 – 5.5 mm long, including beak (to 3 mm excluding beak), linear to lanceolate, trigonous in transverse section; style persistent on mature nutlets, base with tuft of white hairs, to 2 mm long; stigmas 3, with recurved tips

Distribution

Cameroon.

Ecology

Epiphytic in submontane tropical rain forest; 1600 – 1830 m.

Conservation

We assess this plant as Critically Endangered (CR) using the IUCN criteria (IUCN 2001) since it is only known from a single site which is under threat of forest clearance due to agricultural pressure. Overall it is estimated that as much as 96.5% of the original montane (including submontane) forest of the Bamenda Highlands has been lost (Cheek 2000). GIS-based studies within another area of the Bamenda Highlands show that the loss of forest cover continues, with 25 – 30% lost between 1987 – 1995 (Moat 2000). Surveys in other surviving submontane forest fragments of the Bamenda Highlands carried out by British and Cameroonian scientists in recent years have not yet revealed further sites for this species. The Apicultural and Nature Conservation Organisation (ANCO), a non-governmental forest conservation organisation based in Bamenda, has alerted the population of Dom, which manages the forest fragment inhabited by Coleochloadomensis, to the existence of this rare species and its conservation importance.

Note

This species appears to be one of the few sedges known to be obligately epiphytic, being the only one. Coleochloaabyssinica, while normally epilithic through most of its range, has been recorded as being epiphytic in Ethiopia (Lye & Pollard 2004). Bulbostylisdensa (Wall.) Hand.-Mazz. var. cameroonensis Hooper has been observed growing epiphytically on one occasion (Cheek 7575 K!, YA!; Mt Kupe, Cameroon). The habitat of C. domensis is fairly similar to inselberg habitats occupied by most species in the genus. This region of the Cameroon Highlands is home to Microdracoides and Afrotrilepis, other members of the tribe Trilepideae, which are restricted to inselbergs. Coleochloadomensis differs from C. abyssinica, the only congener occurring in West Africa, in being a smaller plant growing in tufts that lack any stolons. Nutlet characters are most conspicuously diagnostic, the nutlets being pilose and having persistent styles with characteristically recurved tips (Fig. 1). These characters are not observed in any other Coleochloa species.