Talk:Tephrosia apollinea/Description

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The species was first described, by Delile, as Galega apollinea, from a population growing in cultivated fields near to the Nile between Edfu (the classical Apollinopsis Magna) and Erment, and on the island of Elephantine at Aswan.

It is a branching, tufted sub-shrub, whose older stems are cylindrical, woody, slightly brownish. Branches rising from 3 to 4 decimeters [1 foot], and slender, slightly zigzag, angular, striated, covered with fine hairs, lying. The leaves are odd-pinnate, with two or three pairs of lateral leaflets. The common, striated petiole is 35 millimeters long (16 lignes), together with its basis of two subulate stipules. The leaflets are short-stalked, silky, silver, elongated-oval, slightly wedge-shaped notched averaged peak, striped fine ribs, obliques. The flowers come in leaf-opposed to the middle of the branches or in the axils of the terminal leaves straight clusters, solitary. The few flowers that will adorn the top clusters: they are short stalked, solitary or united in the axils of small subulate bracts. The calyx is campanulate, silky, five narrow teeth. The corolla is blue. The standard is oval, heart, raised, silky outside. The fruits are linear, weakly bent over, 35 to 40 mm long [17 lignes], containing six to seven brownish seeds, almost spherical, the hilum is white, very small. The inner membrane of pods raises a very thin sheet, applied around the seed, and lapsed when the valves separate.

Discussion

Delile's original description (as Galega apollinea) is good by early 19th century standards. It could be translated and paraphrased to provide an improved description (use eFloras Pakistan and the Sendtnera paper at Biodiversity Heritage Library for sanity checks); note that translating the corolla colour as blue would be an error. Lavateraguy (talk) 08:54, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Why would "blue" be a mistranslation of "bleue", and how would you translate it? Can't we use entirely different descriptions in this article, or should the basic facts stick to the 1813 description? There are a lot of little differences between the archaic Wikipedia description and modern texts, like the number of seeds in the pod listed in 1813 as 6-7, now often listed with different ranges from 5 to 9, or the leaves being described as silky, while many later sources mention that the underside of the leaves are silky while the tops are glabrous. Other details, like the max height of 15 inches in the Wikipedia article, seems based on a single later collection in a Ngamiland location at 3300 feet elevation, which I do think is improper, but there are numerous sources that list its height as anywhere from 30 to 70 cm, and that seems useful even if Delile never mentioned it. Also, given the confusion between this and similar species, perhaps some of the distinguishing features used in later keys to differentiation should be mentioned (e.g., spacing between seeds, vein patterns on the leaves, etc.)? I typed in some of the 1813 text, and cleaned up a Google translation, which I'm posting here in case it's of interest:

C'est un sous-arbrisseau rameux, en touffe, dont les tiges anciennes sont cylindriques, ligneuses, un peu brunâtres. Les rameaux s'élèvant de 3 à 4 décimètres [un pied], et son grêles, un peu en zigzag, anguleux, striés, couverts de poils fins, couchés. Les feuilles sont ailées, à deux ou trois paires de folioles avec une impaire. Le pétiole commun est strié, long de 35 millimeters (16 lignes), accompagné à sa base de deux stipules subulées. Les folioles sont soyeuses, argentées, ovales-alongées, un peu cunéiformes, émarginées sans pointe moyenne, brièvement pédicellées, rayées de nervures fines, obliques. Les fleurs viennent en grappes droites, solitaires, opposées àux feuilles vers le milieu des rameaux, ou dans l'aisselle des feuilles terminales. Les fleurs peu nombreuses ne garnissent que le sommet des grappes: elles sont brièvement pédicellées, solitaires ou réunies dans l'aisselle de petites bractées subulées. Le calice est campanulé, soyeux, à cinq dents étroites. La corolle est bleue. L'étendard est ovale, en coeur, relevé, soyeux en dehors. Les fruits sont linéares, foiblement courbés en dessus, longs de 35 à 40 millimètres [17 lignes], renfermant six à sept graines brunâtres, presque sphériques, dont le hile est blanc, fort petit. La membrane interne des gousses se soulève en un feuillet très-mince, appliqué autour de la graine, et caduc lorsque les valves se séparent.

Le Galega apolinea croît dans les champs cultivés auprès du Nil à Erment à Edfoû, ancienne Apollinopolis magna, et dans l'île d'Eléphantine, en face de Syène.

Slightly cleaned up from google.translate:

This is a branching, tufted sub-shrub, whose older stems are cylindrical, woody, slightly brownish. Branches rising from 3 to 4 decimeters [1 foot], and slender, slightly zigzag, angular, striated, covered with fine hairs, lying. The leaves are winged, two or three pairs of leaflets with an odd number^(???). The common, striated petiole is 35 millimeters long (16 lignes), together with its basis of two subulate stipules. The leaflets are silky, silver, elongated-oval, slightly wedge-shaped notched averaged peak shortly pedicellate, striped fine ribs, obliques. The flowers come in leaf-opposed to the middle of the branches or in the axils of the terminal leaves straight clusters, solitary. The few flowers that will adorn the top clusters: they are short stalked, solitary or united in the axils of small subulate bracts. The calyx is campanulate, silky, five narrow teeth. The corolla is blue. The standard is oval, heart, raised, silky outside. The fruits are linear, weakly bent over, 35 to 40 mm long [17 lignes], containing six to seven brownish seeds, almost spherical, the hilum is white, very small. The inner membrane of pods raises a very thin sheet, applied around the seed, and lapsed when the valves separate.

The Galega apolinea grows in cultivated fields from the Nile to Edfu Erment, old Apollinopolis magna, and the island of Elephantine, opposite Syene.

Agyle (talk) 20:43, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Line is an archaic unit of length. Here it is presumably the French ligne rather than the English line that is used.

"with any odd number" means that there is a terminal leaflet as well as the pairs of lateral leaflets - in jargon imparipinnate, bi- or tri-jugate.

Pictures show a plant with a purple flower. Either the line between blue and purple differed in that time and place from current English usage, or he was misled from working from dried material.

The original description was (presumably) from a single collection, and would not capture the full range of variation of the species; obviously critical evaluation of sources would take into account later descriptions. I suggested starting with Delile's because it's more detailed that the typical description of a plant. Lavateraguy (talk) 08:44, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

Post (Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai) says that the leaves are "canescent-silky" on both sides. Lavateraguy (talk) 21:16, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

If you could find a way of incorporating this I'd be very grateful. Thanks for finding this.♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:13, 13 April 2014 (UTC)