CHECK LIST OF THE MELASTOMATACEAE OF EQUATORIAL GUINEA

PARMENTIER, I. & D. GEERINCK (2003). Check list of the Melastomataceae of Equatorial Guinea. Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 60(2): 331-346. A chec klist of the Melastomataceae of Equatorial Guinea is presented with 57 taxa. Three species were accepted based only on literature records, their distribution area strongly suggests their presence in Equatorial Guinea. Six species are known from Annobón, 23 from Bioko and 49 from Río Muni. Best-represented genera are Memecylon (10), Calvoa (10) and Tristemma (7). Twenty-six taxa are newly recorded for the country. Heterotis obamae Lejoly & Lisowski is set in synonymy with the previously described Heterotis arenaria Jacq.-Fél.


INTRODUCTION
Coriseo are small islands near the border of Río Muni with Gabon.Reo Basile, on Bioko Equatorial Guinea is located in Western Island, is the highest peak (altitude: 3011 m) Central África (fig.1).The country includes and oceupies half of the island, the other half twomain islands in the Gulfof Guinea: Bioko being oceupied by two other volcanoes: La (2017 km 2 ), 32 km from the coast of caldera de Luba (2261 m) and Pico Biaó Cameroon, and Annobón (17 km 2 ), 400 km (2009 m) (PÉREZ DEL VAL, 1996).Malabo, from Gabon.The continental mainland, Río north of the island, has a drier season from Muni (26000 km 2 ) is located between I o and December to January and annual precipitation 2°30' N and 9°30' and 11°30' E. Elobey and of 1932 mm per year.Pluviometry is more important in the southern part of the island, titutle (PEREZ DEL VAL, 1996).From West to with up to 10150 mm annual rainfall at Ureca.East, Rio Muni is divided into three mains The temperature oscillates around 26 °C at parts.The coastal zone includes a littoral sea level.There are strong variations in pre-sandy plain about 30 km wide followed by cipitation, temperature and humidity with al-small hills about 200 m high.The Niefang   (2001).Most recent collections from Rio Muni in BRLU were collected by Senterre for his study of the forest of the Parque Nacional de Monte Alen and the Parque Nacional de Nsork (SEN-TERRE & NGUEMA, 2001;SENTERRE, 2001) and by Parmentier, with her studies on the inselberg vegetation (PARMENTIER & al., 2001;PARMENTIER & NGUEMA, 2001;PARMENTIER, 2002).
Early general studies giving information on Melastomataceae of West tropical Africa come from HUTCHINSON (1928), GUINEA (1946,1951) and HUTCHINSON & DALZIEL (1954).The major work of Jacques-Felix, is our main reference for this paper, especially his flora of Melastomataceae from Cameroon (JACQUES-FELIX, 1983a) and Gabon (JACQUES- FELIX, 1983b).It was usefully completed by a recent revision of Calvoa (FIGUEIREDO, 2001).Recent works notifying the occurrence of Melastomataceae species on Bioko are those of MORALES (1994,1995) and FERNANDEZ CASAS & MORALES VALVERDE (1995).
on the works of Jacques-Felix, especially in the flora of Melastomataceae of Gabon (JACQUES-FELIX, 1983a) 1991, 1995,1997;FIGUEIREDO, 2001).Specimens are alphabetically arranged within province, locality and collector.The herbaria where they are deposited are mentioned.Herbarium codes for MA specimens are given.The indice "st" means mat a specimen is sterile.Previous bibliographical records for each taxon are listed.When the taxon was recorded under an accepted synonym it is indicated (i.e.LEJOLY, 1999b: 118, sub Dissotis irvingiana).
New signalisations for the country are indicated by a "*" before the taxon name.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The check list is mainly based on the examination of about 600 Melastomataceae herbarium specimens from BATA (Herbario Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial), BRLU (Herbarium de 1'Universite Libre de Bruxelles) and MA (Herbario del Real Jardfn Botanico de Madrid).Determinations were based THE CHECK LIST 1. Amphiblemma mildbraedii Gilg ex Engl.

DoubtfUl records
No specimen supporting the following records has been found: Memecylon englerianum Cogn.recorded in Rio Muni (GUINEA, 1946:341).This species is distributed over Nigeria and Western Cameroon.
Memecylon erythranthum Gilg recorded in Rio Muni (GUINEA, 1946:146).This species is distributed in Tanzania and Zimbabwe; its presence in Equatorial Guinea is not very probable.
Osbeckia tubulosa Sm. recorded in Rfo Muni (GUINEA, 1946: 184).This species is distributed from Guinea to Nigeria; its presence in Equatorial Guinea is not very probable.
Tristemma albiflorum Benth.recorded in Rfo Muni (GUINEA, 1946: 184).This species is distributed from Senegal to Ghana, its presence in Equatorial Guinea is not very probable.
We prefer not to consider those species in the check list as long as no material is collected in Equatorial Guinea.
We could not examine any specimens of those species.As they are insufficently known (LEBRUN & STORK, 1991) we prefer not to consider them in the check list.

Repartition of species between Bioko, Annobon and Rio Muni
The species repartition is given in table 2, as well as the indications for the 26 new species for the country, for Rfo Muni ( 29), Bioko (6) and Annobon (3).Fifty-seven species were found in Equatorial Guinea, 49 in Rfo Muni, 23 in Bioko and 6 in Annob6n.The high number of species newly recolted in the country and the fact that several species are represented by one or few herbarium specimen, indicates that the prospection should be continued.

Collection index
The species is indicated by a number in parenthesis corresponding to the number in the check list.
Monte A16n, sur la piste lago Atoc-Moca (Centro-Sur) Parque Nacional de Monte A16n, transect de Monte A\6n (Centro-Sur) Parque Nacional de Monte M6n, Mountain Range reaching 1200 m crosses Rio Muni.The eastern part of the country is a vast plateau of 600 to 700 m altitude scattered with inselbergs.Climate in Rio Muni is equatorial with two drier seasons: from July to September and from December to February.Mean precipitation 2500 mm/year, temperature is around 26 °C all year.Melastomataceae collections from Equatorial Guinea in the last twenty years were mainly collected by the Real Jardfn Botanico of Madrid and the Laboratoire de Botanique systdmatique et de Phytosociologie of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.A good review of the botanical work in Equatorial Guinea is given in VELAYOS & AEDO