Tephrosia cardiophylla (Fabaceae: Millettieae), a distinctive, new, conservation-listed species from Western Australia’s Kimberley sandstones

Abstract

Ongoing taxonomic revisions in Tephrosia Pers. (Fabaceae: Millettieae) Australia-wide are continuing to identify putatively new and patently novel taxa, especially from areas in which there have been few, if any, systematic surveys. While some of these taxa are part of difficult complexes containing a number of described and phrase-named taxa as well as variant forms within each, others are readily recognisable and seemingly without close affinity in the Australian flora; the new species described herein is one such distinctive species. The name T. sp. Saw Ranges (D. Kabay s.n. PERTH 06720544) was added to Western Australia’s vascular plant census in 2011, based on a single fruiting and seeding specimen that could not be matched to any known taxon in Western Australia or the Northern Territory (I. Cowie pers. comm. 2011). Over the past seven years a handful of additional specimens, usually in fruit but occasionally possessing flowers, have been submitted to the Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH) or uncovered at the Northern Territory Herbarium (DNA), validating the distinctness of this species and finally allowing it to be described in full.