Salvia gibbosa J.G.González, Uría & E.Rodr., 2024

González-Gallegos, Jesús Guadalupe, Uría, Rolando & Rodríguez, Eric Frank Rodríguez-, 2024, Salvia gibbosa, S. gracilicaulis and S. ruizii (Lamiaceae), three new species from Peru, Phytotaxa 672 (3), pp. 255-266 : 256-259

Salvia gibbosa J.G.González, Uría & E.Rodr. , sp. nov.

( Figure 1 )

Type:— PERU: Amazonas Department, Chachapoyas Province, Chuquibamba District , [ Cochabamba , ca. 1.5 km al sur], 6º56’44.59’’S 77°54’9.52’’W, 2600 m, 8 August 2022 (cult. in Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, since August, 2023), R. Uría & J. Lozano Pe33-022 (holotype HUT!, isotype CIIDIR!).

Shrub to subshrub, erect, up to 2 m tall; stem densely white lanose and with ocher glandular dots; developing a thicken rootstock. Leaves with petioles 1–2.1 cm long, with similar indument to that in the stems; blade lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 3.2–7 × 1–2.6 cm, apex acute, base cuneate, margin crenulate, both surfaces lanose and with ocher glandular dots, the hairs restricted to the main and secondary veins above. Inflorescence in racemes 20–30 cm long, peduncle 4–7 cm long, verticillasters 8–11, each 8–10-flowered, the lowermost 3–4 cm apart from each other, peduncle and floral axis lanose and with ocher glandular dots, floral axis additionally covered with glandular hairs. Floral bract deciduous, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 5–14 × (1.4–) 3.2–5 mm, apex caudate, base truncate, margin entire, outer surface short pilose and with ocher glandular dots. Flower with pedicel 5.9–7.5 mm long, short pilose and with glandular hairs. Calyx 6–7 × 3.8–4.2 mm, externally short pilose, with ocher glandular dots and glandular hairs, glabrous inside, lips subtruncate, the upper 5-veined and entire. Corolla blue to dark blue, sometimes progressively paler towards the base, the lower lip with or without white nectar guides, short pilose with the hairs concentrated along the dorsal line of the upper lip and the ventral of the lower lip, also with glandular dots near the throat and especially dense in the ventral surface of the lower lip; tube 17.5–19.5 × 5–8.3 mm, slightly arcuate with a downward bent near the middle (resembling a dorsal hump), tubular and widened towards the throat, invaginate near the base and with a couple papillae inside; upper lip 5.7–10.1 mm long; lower lip 7.6–12.4 × 6–9.6 mm. Stamens included; filament 3–3.8 mm long; connective 12–14.3 mm long, ornate with an antrorse tooth near ventral midportion; theca 2.5–2.8 mm long; staminodes above and behind filament insertion, linguiform to filiform, 0.9–1 mm long. Gynobasic horn 1–1.2 mm long; style 22–26.7 mm long, short pilose near the apex mainly along the dorsal line, upper stigmatic branch arcuate and longer than the lower, the latter arcuate and acute. Mature fruit not evaluated.

Distribution, habitat and ecology:— Salvia gibbosa is known only from the type locality in northern Peru ( Figure 2 ). It grows close to 2600 m elevation, in shrublands along fog corridors or at the margin of landslides with mostly secondary vegetation composed by several invasive species. The soil is clayish and reddish, and rocky. The species shares habitat with Achyrocline alata ( Kunth 1820: 62) De Candolle (1837: 221) , Baccharis latifolia ( Ruiz & Pavón 1798: 208) Persoon (1807: 424) “chilco”, Furcraea Ventenat (1793: 65) sp. , Miconia sp. (profusely colonized by Usnea Dill. ex Adanson (1763: 7) sp. ), Myrsine Linnaeus (1753a: 196) sp. , Pityrogramma Link (1833: 19) sp. , Pteridium aquilinum ( Linnaeus 1753b: 1075) Kuhn (1879: 11) “shapumba”, Rubus Linnaeus (1753: 492) sp. , Rumex peruanus Rechinger (1933: 6) , Stevia Cavanilles (1797: 32) sp. , Tibouchina Aublet (1775: 445) sp. , and Verbesina saubinetioides Blake (1924: 423) . There are also plantations of Pinus radiata Don (1836: 442) nearby.

Phenology:—It flowers and fruits from April to January with a peak in flowering rate along the winter.

Etymology:—The specific epithet describes the peculiar condition of the corolla tube in which the bent towards the lips resembles a dorsal hump.

Conservation status:— Salvia gibbosa is a very restricted species in the surroundings of Cochabamba, probably being microendemic. The population is threatened by nearby croplands and nomadic cattle raising. However, being known only from a single population its categorization cannot be conclusive, hence it is here better assigned as Data Deficient DD. Nonetheless, it is critical to conduct botanical explorations in nearby areas with environmental conditions adequate to the species to have a more precise characterized distribution.

Notes:—The morphology of Salvia gibbosa approaches the most to the species of sections Corrugatae ( Bentham 1848: 327) Epling (1939: 50) due to the shrubby habit, bullate-rugose leaves, deciduous floral bracts, ventricose corolla tube and deeply invaginated near the base, inserted stamens, connectives ornated with an antrorse tooth near the midportion, and pubescent style ( Epling 1939). From the five species integrating Corrugatae ( González-Gallegos et al. 2020), Salvia gibbosa is morphologically most similar to S. corrugata Vahl (1805: 252) in having lanose pubescence along the stems (although glabrescent with age), leaves tending to be lanceolate and bullate-rugose above, generally twice as long as those in the other species, and blue or dark blue corollas ( Epling 1939). The new species can be differentiated from S. corrugata by the white color of the pubescence along the stems and underneath the leaves (vs. ferruginous), cuneate base of the leaves (vs. rounded-truncate and then short cuneate), blade pilose to lanose along the main vein (vs. glabrous to short and sparsely pilose), lax inflorescences (vs. condensed with the floral bracts and flowers hiding the floral axis) and longer (20–30 vs. 3–8 cm long), floral bract duration (deciduous vs. semi-persistent) and shape (lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate with caudate apex vs. broad ovate and acuminate), also the indumentum on the outer surface of the bracts (short and sparsely pilose vs. densely white lanose) longer pedicels (5.9–7.5 vs. 2–5.6 mm long), 5-veined upper calyx lip and entire (vs. 7-veined and trimucronate), and larger corolla tubes (17.5–19.5 × 5–8.3 vs. 12.2–15.9 × 3.1–6 mm) ( Epling 1939, Wood & Harley 1989). There is also a very distinctive character in corolla shape, S. gibbosa presents a gibba in dorsal line which is pronounced by an anterior downward bent of the tube; in S. corrugata both dorsal and ventral lines of the corolla tube are inflated but with the tube straight after the widened portion.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Salvia gibbosa A. Portion of the stems showing the indument, B. Leaves, C. Portion of the inflorescences with dark blue corollas, D. Corolla color variation, blue and progressively paler to the base, E. Dried corolla, F. Corolla dissection showing the position of the invagination and internal papilla to the base, and the filament close to the lips, G. Removed connectives and thecae H. Anterior portion of the style showing the stigmatic branches (Photographs of living plants taken by R. Uría at the field and in his nursery; floral dissections made from the holotype).

FIGURE 2. Distribution map of the Salvia gibbosa (white dot), S. gracilicaulis (white triangles) and S. ruizii (white diamonds). A closeup to northern Peru is presented in the up-right corner. The background satellite image was extracted from Google Earth (2024).