A new species of Lichtensteinia (Apiaceae)

Lichtensteinia globosa B.-E. Van Wyk & P.M. Tilney, a distinct new species from the Cedarberg Mountains in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, is described. The new species is related to Lichtensteinia interrupta (= L. kolbeana) but differs in having tuberculate (pustulate), globose fruits (fruits smooth in all other species and strongly dorsally compressed in all except L. obscura and L. interrupta). It is geographically isolated from L. interrupta, which has a wide distribution in the southern and eastern coastal parts of South Africa. The new species has serrate-aristate leaf margins and pustulate fruits which appear to further reduce the taxonomic distance between Lichtensteinia and the subfamily Saniculoideae, where bristly or even spiny leaf margins and tuberculate fruits are common. Furthermore, Lichtensteinia species also have crystals right around the pericarp, rounded cotyledons, large rib oil ducts and a complete absence of vittae, all of which are typical of the Saniculoideae.