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PLANT FAMILY: Costaceae
BOTANICAL NAME: Costus sarmentosus
FORMAL SCIENTIFIC NAME: Costus sarmentosus Bojer
STATUS :synonym
CONTINENT: African
SYNONYMS: Costus uluguruensis,
BOTANICAL NOTES:
This African species is placed in synonymy with Costus afer (PID3430) in Paul Maas' monograph on African Costaceae, published on 16 December 2016. (Monograph of African Costaceae, H. Maas-van de Kamer, P.J.M. Maas, J.J. Wieringa, C.D. Specht, Blumea 61, 2016: 280 - 318, http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/blumea/2016/00000061/00000003/art00010)The African Plant Database lists this species as accepted. Biology : Perennial herb with erect leafy shoots 1,5-3,5 m tallEcology : Forest, usually near water; woodland; evergreen forest, forest margins; 0-1100 m alt.
W3Tropicos - http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/pick.html - Costus sarmentosus Bojer; Author(s): Bojer, H. W. Date: 1835 Title: Descriptiones et icones plantarum rariorum quas insulis Africae Australis detexit anno 1824 Publication: Annales des Sciences Naturelles; Botanique, ser. 2, Collation: 4: 262--270
Flora of Tropical Africa, 1898 - describes this species, Very long slender stems (sarmentose) reaching a length of 20-30 feet! Short, densely ciliated ligule, inflo. Is terminal on leafy stem, flowers broad, white with yellowish blotch. Distribution Mozamb., Island of Zanzibar, on the banks of streams amongst tall grass.
"3. C. sarmentosus, Bojer in Ann. Sc.Nat. ser. 2, iv. 262, t. 8.Stems slender, sarmentose, reaching a length of 20-30 ft. Leavesoblong-Ianceolate, a span long, 2 in. broad at the middle, softly pubescent beneath; petiole very short, villous; ligule short, densely ciliated.Spikes sessile at the apex of the leafy stem, 1 1/2 in. diam.; bractssuborbicular, the lower 1 in. broad. Calyx shorter than the bract.Corolla-lobes oblong, a.cute. Lip obovate-cuneate, 1 in. broad, whitewith a yellow blotch in the middle, fimbriated at the margin; . Processof fertile stamen nearly as long as the lip.-Bojer, Hort. Maurit. 328.
Mozamb. Dist. Island of Zanzibar, on the banks of streams amongst tallgrass, Bojer!
No specimen in tbe Kew Herbarium."
Schumann describes this species and places in subgenus Eucostus - Das Pflanzenreich IV, 1904.
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