Phytologia (Aug 2004) 86(2) 69 



The several collections here placed in Galactia volubilis var. 

 baltzel liana were examined by Isely, who agreed (1990:151) they 

 represent a "spectrum of characters" that may deserve formal 

 nomenclatural status. In the field they seem even more distinct than the 

 diagnostic characters indicate, for the stems of var. baltzelliana climb 

 robustly through overlying vegetation, while var. volubilis remains either 

 prostrate or laxly climbing. 



An 1895 collection from Tampa, western coastal Florida, named 

 Galactia fasciculata, has been difficult to assign. Though accepted as 

 a species by Vail (1895), its original author, and by Rogers (1949), it 

 has been dismissed by later workers as a synonym of G. regularis (here 

 treated as G. volubilis). Yet its fascicled inflorescences and orbicular, 

 deeply emarginate leaves (illustrated by Rogers) do not well correspond 

 to that tax on. It is rare, if not wholly obliterated by the growth of urban 

 Tampa. Rogers cites only a single additional collection (Volusia Co.: 

 Enterprise, 24 Aug 1903, Britton and Wilson s.n. (NY)), and no equivalent 

 plants have been encountered in the present study. That this distinctive 

 entity not be lost, it is here given appropriate varietal rank. 



Galactia volubilis (L.) Britt. var. fasciculata (Vail) D. B. Ward & D. 

 W. Hall, comb, et stat. nov. Basionym: Galactia fasciculata A. M. 

 Vail, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 22:505. 1895. 



Galactia brachypoda Torr. & Gray (1838) is a puzzling entity, based 

 upon two A. W. Chapman specimens (NY) from "Middle Florida" (i.e., 

 central panhandle Florida), thought by Isely (Brittonia 38:352-359. 

 1986) to represent either a "rare hybrid" or a "freak form" of Galactia 

 erecta. Rogers (1949) cited an additional Chapman specimen (MO) 

 from Wewahitchka, Gulf Co., possibly also the source of the "Middle 

 Florida" specimens. Since this location is a center of endemism on the 

 Gulf coast, these collections may represent an endemic species, long- 

 uncollected or perhaps extinct. [A specimen cited by Rogers from Dade 

 Co. (Hood in 1912 - FLAS) is apparently atypical G volubilis.] This 

 entity has been held as distinct by most early authors; Rogers provided 

 a suite of characters by which the two may be separated. But for the 



