REINWARDTIA_13_1_101209 + dftar isi+new RE IN W AR DT IA 13 (1) A JOURNAL ON TAXONOMIC BOTANY, PLANT SOCIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY RE IN W AR DT IA 13 (1) A JOURNAL ON TAXONOMIC BOTANY, PLANT SOCIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY REINWARDTIA Vol 13, Part 1, pp: 21 − 23 21 THE STATUS OF SEMEIOCARDIUM ZOLL. (BALSAMINACEAE) Received April 24, 2009; accepted June 6, 2009 NANDA UTAMI Herbarium Bogoriense, Botany Division, Research Center for Biology–LIPI, Jl. Raya Jakarta Bogor Km 46, Cibinong 16911, Indonesia. E-mail: utami_16002@yahoo.com ABSTRACT UTAMI, N. 2009. The status of Semeiocardium Zoll. (Balsaminaceae). Reinwardtia 13(1): 21–23. — On the basis of comparison with other characters of two subgenera of the genus Impatiens, Semeiocardium Zoll. is proposed to be best treated as a subgenus of Impatiens (Balsaminaceae). Subgenus Semeiocardium (Zoll.) N. Utami is distinguished from the other two subgenera in the number of locular ovary and its connate wing petals. Subgenus Semeiocardium has 20 species in four sections of Impatiens in the sense of Warburg & Reiche (1896). There are 14 species of Impatiens in section Microcentron Warb., 3 species of section Macrocentron Warb, 2 species of section Brachycentron Warb., and 1 species of section Brevicalcaratae Warb. Key words: Balsaminaceae, Impatiens, Semeiocardium. ABSTRAK UTAMI, N, 2009. Status Semeiocardium Zoll. (Balsaminaceae). Reinwardtia 13(1): 21–23. — Berdasarkan perbandingan karakter dari ke dua anak marga Impatiens, Semeiocardium Zoll. diajukan untuk diperlakukan sebagai anak marga Impatiens (Balsaminaceae). Anak marga Semeiocardium (Zoll.) N. Utami dapat dibedakan dari kedua anak marga Impatiens lainnya berdasarkan jumlah ruang bakal buah dan perlekatan sayap daun mahkota. Anak marga Semeiocardium mempunyai anggota 20 jenis dan 4 seksi Impatiens Warburg & Reiche (1896). Mereka adalah 14 jenis dari seksi Microcentron Warb., 3 jenis dari seksi Macrocentron Warb., 2 jenis dari seksi Brachycentron Warb. dan 1 jenis dari seksi Brevicalcaratae Warb. Kata kunci: Balsaminaceae, Impatiens, Semeiocardium. INTRODUCTION Warburg & Reiche (1896) classified the genus Impatiens (Balsaminaceae) into two subgenera: subgen. Caulimpatiens Warb. (= subgen. Impatiens) and subgen. Acaulimpatiens Warb. on the basis of presence or absence of cauline leaves. These two subgenera were also divided into 14 sections on the basis of phyllotaxy, inflorescence and spur characters. Subgenus Acaulimpatiens Warb. has only 2 sections and subgen. Impatiens 12 sections. The distribution area of subgen. Impatiens, which consists of more than 850 species, is extensive, covering Eurasia, Africa and North America, while that of subgen. Acaulimpatiens to which only ten or so species belong, is confined to the Western Ghats in India and Sri Lanka. Backer & Backhuizen van den Brink (1963) rec- ognized three genera in the family Balsaminaceae, namely Hydrocera Bl. ex Weight & Arnott, Impa- tiens L. and Semeiocardium Zoll. Hydrocera tri- flora looks similar to Impatiens. However, there are two basic differences in flower and fruit structure that clearly separate the two genera. In Hydrocera there is a full complement of 5 sepals and 5 petals with all the petals being free from one another. In Impatiens the sepals are usually, if not always 3 in number and the lower 4 petals are partially connate into lateral pairs (united lateral petals) with the up- per or dorsal petal being entirely free. Whereas Se- meiocardium is characterized by its 4 lateral sepals in 2 pairs, the outer (lower) pair connate and enclos- ing the lower sepal and spur, sepals oval, asymmet- ric, apiculate, with inner (upper) pair hidden by the outer pair, free, linearly lanceolate; lower sepal navicular, abruptly constricted into a short in curved bifid spur; dorsal petal cucullate; lateral united pet- als connate; and ovary 4 locular. Based on the above characters it seems that Se- meiocardium is closely related to Impatiens, that is why Grey−Wilson (1989) proposed that Semeiocar- dium be reduced as a synonym of Impatiens. This idea supported Shimizu (1987) suggestions in trans- ferring Semeiocardium arriensii to Impatiens as I. arriensii (Zoll.) T. Shimizu. So Semeiocardium is now treated as a synonym of Impatiens (Grey−Wilson 1989). REINWARDTIA 22 [VOL.13 MATERIALS AND METHODS During the revision of the genus Impatiens, the author examined about 100 species and 14 sections of Impatiens in the sense of Warburg and Reiche’s (1896) system, collected from Indonesia, Thailand, India, China and Japan. This study is done by using scanning electron microscope (SEM). We also ob- served floral characters, chromosome numbers and seedling morphology. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION During the study of Impatiens from Thailand, China and Indonesia, Shimizu et al. (1996) and Utami (1996) found that Semeiocardium is not the only member with a 4−locular ovary and connate wing petals. There are some species of Impatiens having such characters. Examples include Impatiens bunackii T. Shimizu of Thailand, I. alboflava Miq. of Indonesia and several other species. Grey– Wilson (1989) also mentioned that several Impa- tiens from Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia closely resemble S. arriensii, so that he proposed to treat Impatiens harmandii as subspecies of I. arrien- sii, and I. macrosepala as a synonym of I. arriensii. Throughout the study of seed coat morphology of the genus Impatiens, the available data show that the seed coat types in general support the classical classification of the genus Impatiens, especially concerning the Southeast Asian species. The seed coat character agrees well with other morphological characters such as the four carpellate ovaries, con- nate winged petals and seed coat pilose with long hairs or granulate and finely granular to form natu- ral groups. Because of that it is suggested that the group which has four carpellate ovaries, connate winged petals and seed coat pilose with long hairs or granulate and finely granular should be distin- guished as a different subgenus. These characters are found in 14 species of Impatiens section Micro- centron Warb., namely I. arriensii (Zoll.) T. Shi- mizu, I. bunnackii T. Shimizu, I. charanii T. Shi- mizu, I. harmandii T. Shimizu, I. kanburiensis T. Shimizu, I. macrosepala Hook.f., I. saraburiensis T. Shimizu, I. hongsonensis T. Shimizu, I. kerriae Craib, I. namkatensis T. Shimizu, I. psittacina Hook.f., I. verucifer Hook.f., I. boni Hook.f., and I. parishii Hook.f. Three species of Impatiens section Macrocentron Warb., there are: I. santisukii T. Shi- mizu, I. muscicola Craib. and I. siamensis T. Shi- mizu, 2 species of Impatiens section Brachycentron Warb., such as I. alboflava Miq., I. larsenii T. Shi- mizu and 1 species of Impatiens section Brevical- caratae Warb. is I. mirabilis Hook.f. The distribu- tion of this subgenus is restricted to South Asia, from South China to South Indonesia. Comparison of floral morphology, chromosome numbers, seedling and seed coat characters, in sev- eral sections of Warburg and Reiche’s classification suggests that it would be appropriate to recognize a third subgenus, namely Impatiens subgenus Semeio- cardium (Zoll.) N. Utami stat. nov. Impatiens subgenus Semeiocardium (Zoll.) N. Utami stat. nov. Basionym: Semeiocardium Zoll. Natuurk. Tijdschr. Ned. Ind. 17 : 245. 1858. Type : I. arriensii (Zoll) T. Shimizu, Madura, Zollinger 3956 (Holotype− L). Distribution. Thailand and Indonesia. Ecology. Limestone areas. Notes. The following characters are important as diagnostic characters to distinguish among the sub- genera (Table. 1). ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to thank to Prof. Dr. Dan H. Nicolson and Dr. Jun Wen of Department of Botany, US National Herbarium, National Museum of Natural History, Smith- sonian Institution for reviewing this manuscript. REFERENCES BACKER, C.A. & BACKHUIZEN VAN DEN BRINK Jr, R.C.. 1963. Flora of Java I: 248−251, Nordhoff Groningen. GREY-WILSON, C. 1989. Semeiocardium Zoll.; Is it a good genus? Studies in Balsaminaceae: IX. Kew Bull. 44 (1): 107−113. Subgenus Locular number in ovary Lateral united petals Seed coat type Cauline leaves Impatiens 5 free variation present Acaulimpatiens 5 free variation absent Semeiocardium stat. nov. 4 connate Pilose with long hairs or, granulate of finely granular present Table 1. Characters to distinguish the three subgenera of Impatiens. UTAMI : The status of Semeiocardium Zoll. (Balsaminaceae) 2009] 23 UTAMI, N. 1996. Taxonomy of the genus Impatiens (Balsaminaceae) based on seed coat morphology. Ph.D thesis (Unpublished). SHIMIZU, T. 1987. A note on the distribution of the genus Impatiens (Balsaminaceae) in Southeast Asia. Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 38: 53 – 57 (In Japanese). SHIMIZU, T., TAKAO, S., UTAMI, N. & TAKAO, A. 1996. Anatomical of floral organs and its taxo- nomic significance in the genus Impatiens (Balsaminaceae), with special reference to sub- gen. Acaulimpatiens. Phytomorphology, 46(3): 253−266. WARBURG, O. & REICHE, K. J. 1896. Balsaminaceae. Engler’s Nat. Pflanzenfam. Teil III, Alstchitung 5: 383−392. cover.pdf REINWARDTIA_13_1_291209_nanda.pdf