Cibirhiza spiculata (Apocynaceae), a remarkable new species from eastern Ethiopia

Summary  The new species Cibirhiza spiculata Thulin & Goyder, from Acacia-Commiphora bushland on sand in the Somali National Regional State (Ogaden) of Ethiopia, is described and illustrated. Its conservation status has been assessed. A molecular phylogenetic analysis confirms its placement in the tribe Fockeeae and indicates a position of the new species as sister to C. albersiana. The almost obsolete anther appendages, the outer corona with spreading lobes, as well as the pollinia with apparently single pollen grains, also support its placement in Cibirhiza. However, C. spiculata differs markedly from both previously known species of this genus (C. dhofarensis in Oman and Yemen and C. albersiana in Tanzania and Zambia) by its narrowly linear, subsessile leaves and by the inner corona lobes that are curved inwards over the gynostegium and each ending in a spinulose head.