Magnolia orbiculata (Britton & P.Wilson) Palmarola (2016: 3)

Testé, Ernesto, García-Beltrán, José Angel, Palmarola, Alejandro, Robert, Thierry & Bécquer, Eldis R., 2023, Taxonomic update of Magnolia subsect. Talauma (Magnoliaceae) from Cuba, Phytotaxa 598 (2), pp. 124-132 : 126

1. Magnolia orbiculata (Britton & P.Wilson) Palmarola (2016: 3) .

Type:— CUBA. Granma: Loma de Quintín-Nagua , Jul 1922, León LS-10955 (lectotype: NY 73699 !, designated here; isolectotypes: GH 39075!, HAC ex LS, SV-10703!) .

Homotypic synonyms: Talauma orbiculata Britton & P.Wilson in Britton (1923: 37). Talauma minor subsp. orbiculata (Britton & P.Wilson) Borhidi in Borhidi & Muñiz (1971: 7).

Heterotypic synonyms: Svenhedinia truncata Moldenke (1946: 142) . Talauma truncata (Moldenke) Howard (1948: 357) . Type:— CUBA. Santiago de Cuba: Alto Babiney, Sur del Turquino, Acuña SV-14069 ( HAC ex SV!).

Trees up to 25 m tall, 0.62 cm in diameter. Leaves with petiole of 2–7 cm, blade 6–16 × 6–13 cm, orbiculate, widely elliptic, ovate, reniform, length-width ratio 0.81–1.50, apex round, retuse or truncate, base truncate to round, adaxial surface dark green, the abaxial light green, glabrous, prominently reticulate-veined on both sides, midrib flat above, prominent beneath. Flowers terminal, often paired, sepals 3, elliptic, initially greenish white, 3.0 × 1.5 cm, petals 6, cream, in two cycles, the 3 outer petals elliptical-cuneate 3.0 × 1.5 cm, the inner petals linear, cuneate, apiculate 2.8 × 0.7 cm, stamens up to 65, linear, cream to white, from base to connective until 0.4 cm, gynoecium of (15–)20–27 carpels with brown to ferruginous indument. Polyfollicle spherical, 4.5 × 4.0 cm with brown to rusty indument.

Phenology:— Flowering July–December, fruiting February–December.

Notes:— In the protologue, Britton (1923) mentioned León LS-10955 without specifying the herbarium. All duplicates are thus syntypes ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 40, Note 1). Palmarola et al. (2016) recognised the NY specimen as the holotype, but such designations cannot be considered effective lectotypification because (since 1 January 2001) the phrase “designated here” or an equivalent is required ( Turland et al. 2018: Art. 7.11). For this reason, we designate the material suggested by Palmarola et al. (2016) as lectotype. Our circumscription of M. orbiculata ( Fig. 1 ) is identical to that proposed by Bisse (1974, 1988), Imchanickaja (1993) and Palmarola et al. (2016).

Distribution:— Endemic to south-eastern Cuba in the Sierra Maestra range, provinces of Granma and Santiago de Cuba, in rainforest and mesophyll evergreen forest, 795–1,200 m a.s.l., on volcanic soils.

Other specimens examined:— CUBA. Granma: Bartolomé Masó, firme de la Sierra Maestra entre Lagunitas y Aguada de Joaquín, 19 Apr 1979, Bisse et al. HFC-40417 ( HAJB); Campamento Aguada de Joaquín (PN Pico Turquino ), 10 Dec 2014, Palmarola & González-Torres HFC-89393-89396 ( HAJB) ; Loma Cala , 21 May 1948, Acuña SV-15177 ( HAC ex SV) ; Loma de Quintín-Nagua , 5 Jul 1922, Ekman 14178 ( S) ; Subida al pico Caracas desde la Estación Biológica, 19 Feb 2016, Palmarola et al. HFC-89194 ( HAJB) ; Buey Arriba , El Maguito, 30 Feb 2016, Molina HFC-89590 ( HAJB) ; Subida al Pico Caracas desde la Estación biológica, 19, 20 Feb 2016, Palmarola et al. HFC-89195 ( HAJB) ; Yao Arriba , 14 Mar 1952, Smith 384 ( HAC ex SV, HAC ex LS) . Santiago de Cuba : Guamá , entre Loma del Sabicú y Palma Mocha-Región del Turquino, Jan 1948, Ambriosio LS-23367 ( HAC ex LS) ; Pluvisilva Alto de la Francia, 5 Feb 1972, Bisse HFC-21369 ( HAJB, JE) ; Sierra Maestra , Alto de la Siberia, falda norte, April 1969, Bisse HFC-13589 ( HAJB) ; Sierra Maestra , El Uvero, monte semicaducifolio cerca de la Francia entre 300-600 m, 13 Apr 1969, Bisse & Lippold HFC-14289, HFC-14294 ( JE) ; Sierra Maestra , Ocujal, camino de la Cantimplora, monte seco entre 100-600 m, 24 May 1971, Bisse & Lippold HFC-19473 ( JE) ; cerca de Loma del Gato-Maestra-Oriente, Aug 1944, Alain & Crisógono 255 ( HAC ex LS) ; Loma del Gato-Victoria , Dec 1947, Crisógono & Néstor NSC-5794 ( HAC ex NSC) ; Loma San Juan-Gato (Oriente), Dec 1947, León LS-23366 ( HAC ex SV, HAC ex LS) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. The main classifications of Magnolia subsect. Talauma in Cuba, with the taxonomic results of this research: M. orbiculata (Britton & P. Wilson) Palmarola, M. minor (Urb.) Govaerts, M. oblongifolia (León) Palmarola, Talauma ophiticola Bisse. The lines and points on the right of the blocks represents leaf shape variability from the morphological analyses of Testé et al. (2022a).