Reconsideration of the African species <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sesbania sudanica</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">S. hepperi</Emphasis> (Leguminosae subfam. Papilionoideae) as to their variation in Ethiopia

Summary  Recently collected material of Sesbania (Leguminosae subfam. Papilionoideae) from western Ethiopia shows variation and character combinations not recorded in J. B. Gillett’s revision of Sesbania from Africa and tropical Arabia from 1963 and combines three taxa in his revision, S. sudanica J. B. Gillett, S. sudanica subsp. occidentalis J. B. Gillett and S. hepperi J. B. Gillett. The three taxa are therefore united into one more variable species, S. sudanica, that can still be distinguished from other Sesbania species with no or hardly any free tips on the appendages on the standard by having the style pilose or tomentose and a long sterile rostrum on a non- or only faintly torulose pod. The amended S. sudanica is distributed throughout the Sudanian woodland zone from near the Atlantic to the foothills of the Ethiopian highlands. The distribution area agrees well with the Sudanian region in Frank White’s classification of African phytochoria.