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Identifying Faurea galpinii

Going through the key to Faurea (PAN 8: 12), I thought an additional character might be useful. The most striking way of telling F. galpinii apart from the others is that the inflorescences are held rigidly erect, whereas those of the other three species are pendulous. I have not yet seen the inflorescences of F. macnaughtonii, but I believe they hang down too.

In addition, the habit and habitat of F. galpinii and F. macnaughtonii can overlap. I have frequently seen F. galpinii growing in montane mist forest where it attains a height of well over 15 metres. In these areas of the eastern Transvaal one usually has to resort to inflorescence characters to be certain of identification.

Please note the spelling mistake of Protea welwitschii.
John Burrows, Lydenburg

Many thanks for these observations: we are particularly interested in features which atlassers find helpful in distinguishing between species. As most taxonomy is based on herbarium specimens, many extremely useful features (eg resprouting) are often excluded from taxonomical descriptions. Often this makes it difficult to distinguish species that are obviously different in the field. Fortunately, modern taxonomists do do some field work.
Eds

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