Notes on Somalian Sapindaceae

Summary. Two new genera, Chiarinia and Sennia, and three new species, Chiarinia jubae-fluvii, Sennia sciap-sciaple and Filicium somalense, were described by Chiovenda in his Flora Somala. In the present paper it is shown that Chiarinia is a synonym of Lecaniodiscus Planch. ex Benth. (Sapindaceae), as C.jubae-fluvii is conspecific with L.fraxinifolius Baker, that Sennia is a synonym of Dialium L. (Leguminosae subfam. Caesalpinioideae), as S. sciap-sciaple is conspecific with D. orientale Bak. f., and that Filicium somalense is conspecific with Haplocoelum inopleum Radlk. (Sapindaceae). All three species are members of the coastal forests of East Africa. No nomenclatural changes are necessary because of these identifications. A number of Sapindaceous trees described by Chiovenda from the southernmost part of Somalia have until now only been known from the type collections. The trees were found in riverine or coastal forest. It seemed likely that these species would also occur in Kenya, in which country there are more considerable areas of these forests than in Somalia. A study of the type specimens at the University Herbarium of Florence (FI), combined with studies of East African material at Kew, has shown that this assumption was correct, and two monotypic genera and one species are here identified with East African taxa.