A new generic affiliation for New Guinean Paracroton sterrhopodus (Euphorbiaceae, Crotonoideae) as a member of recently described Indonesian Weda

VAN WELZEN P., J. VAN DER VELDT, D. VAN DER MAREL, H.-J. ESSER, D. ARIFIANI & K. WURDACK (2024). A new generic affiliation for New Guinean Paracroton sterrhopodus (Euphorbiaceae, Crotonoideae) as a member of recently described Indonesian Weda. Candollea 79: 299–302. In English, English abstract. New Guinean Paracroton sterrhopodus (Airy Shaw) Radcl.-Sm. & Govaerts (Euphorbiaceae), known only from its type collection, shows an enormous distributional disjunction from the rest of that genus found from India to West Malesia. Morphologically the species is also distinct from Paracroton Miq. as it lacks stipules (present in Paracroton), shows dendritic hairs (versus absent) and has a structurally different inflorescence, a bisexual cyme with two subopposite large bracts (instead of a unisexual thyrse). In reevaluating the affiliation of P. sterrhopodus we found these morphological characters perfectly match with the recently described Weda Welzen, from the island of Halmahera (North Maluku, Indonesia). Therefore, the new combination as W. sterrhopoda (Airy Shaw) Welzen is made here. This new generic affiliation extends the distribution of Weda by 1500 km, although each of the constituent species has a very narrow known range. Submitted on September 9, 2024 – Accepted on October 25, 2024 – First published online on November 20, 2024