Haseltonia 22: 48–54. 2016 48 INTRODUCTION he genus Brachystelma R. Br. ex Sims, (Apocy- naceae, Asclepiadoideae, Ceropegieae) is the second largest in the Ceropegieae and contains approxi- mately 130 species (Dyer, 1980; Meve, 2002). It has a disjunct distribution, with a concentration of nearly 90 species in southern Africa (Germishuizen & Meyer, 2003), of which almost 80 (± 90%) are endemic to southern Africa. Some 27 species occur from SE-Asia to northern Australia, with 22 record- ed in India and one in each of Australia, Nepal, New Guinea, the Phillippines, Sri Lanka and hailand. Among the Indian species, four are from the foothills of the Himalaya in northern India and the remain- der are from peninsular India, where they are known from the extreme south in Kerala and Tamil Nadu to Maharashtra in the west and are particularly associ- ated with the foothills of the Western Ghats. A total of 21 are endemic to India (Venu and Prasad, 2015). Although it was believed that the genus Brachys- telma was monophyletic (Meve & Liede-Schumann, 2007; Ollerton & al., 2009), it has turned out that this was a consequence of inadequate sampling. More detailed sampling has established that Bra- chystelma consists of at least four distinct lineages and that the SE-Asian-Australian species of Brachys- telma (which make up one of these lineages) are not closely related to the other three lineages from Africa (Surveswaran & al., 2009; Bruyns & al., 2015), but are nested in a separate branch of Ceropegia L. to all the African species. In addition, some small, erect species of Ceropegia (such as C. spiralis Wight) are nested among them just as certain small, erect spe- cies of Ceropegia (such as C. turricula E.A. Bruce) are nested among the African species of Brachystelma (Bruyns & al., 2015). Although the SE-Asian species of Brachystelma are all closely related to each other, the relationships among them are not well resolved. his lack of resolution is a consequence of low ge- netic variation among them (much less than among many of the species of Ceropegia) and suggests that they are recently evolved, as was also found for the major African radiation in Brachystelma (Bruyns & al., 2015). Two unique features stand out among the SE-Asian–Australian species of Brachystelma. One is that some of the Indian species (as in B. brevitubula- tum (Bedd.) Gamble, B. volubile Hook.f.) are twiners on the surrounding vegetation. his phenomenon is widespread in Ceropegia, but is otherwise unknown in Brachystelma. Another feature is that the non- climbing SE-Asian species (from India to northern Australia) are partly hysteranthous: lowers are pro- duced early in the growing season, often on other- wise bare stems before the leaves develop (an ex- ample can be seen here in Fig. 4B), sometimes with later lushes of lowers appearing from the same in- lorescences among the fully developed leaves (as in Fig. 7D-F). he African species generally lower after the leaves are fully developed (though the recently described B. theronii Bruyns from South Africa is an exception here, also lowering before the leaves are fully developed). Although over 20 species of Brachystelma are now known from SE Asia, their loral diversity does not match that of the African species. he lowers do not achieve the diameters found in such species as B. foetidum Schltr. and B. loribundum Turrill; the Abstract: hree new species, Brachystelma matthewianum Bruyns & Britto, B. rapinatianum Britto & Bruyns and B. saldanhae Britto & Bruyns (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae, Ceropegieae), from diferent parts of the province of Tamil Nadu in southern India are described and illustrated. Keywords: Apocynaceae, Ceropegieae, SE Asia. THREE NEW SPECIES OF BRACHYSTELMA FROM TAMIL NADU, INDIA S. JOHN BRITTO 1,3 PETER V. BRUYNS 2,4 1 he Rapinat Herbarium, St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli 620 002, Tamil Nadu, India 2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, 7701 Rondebosch, South Africa. 3 email: sjbrapinat@gmail.com 4 email: peter.bruyns@uct.ac.za Author Copy