Magnolia zoquepopolucae A.Vázquez, 2012

Vázquez-García, J. Antonio, Castro-Arce, Ernesto De, Muñiz-Castro, Miguel A. & Cházaro-Basáñez, Miguel De J., 2012, Magnolia zoquepopolucae (subsection Talauma, Magnoliaceae), a new species from Sierra de Santa Marta, Veracruz, Mexico, Phytotaxa 57 (1), pp. 51-55 : 52

Magnolia zoquepopolucae A.Vázquez , sp. nov. ( Fig. 1 )

Type:— MEXICO: Veracruz: Mpio. San Pedro Soteapan, cercanías de Santa Marta, rodal de selva alta perennifolia, 18°19'15.7"N, 94°53'09.8"W, 1300 m, 8 May 2011 (fr.), Vázquez-García et al. 9139 (holotype IBUG!, isotype MEXU!) .

Evergreen trees, 30–45(–50) m tall, 1.0– 1.5 m diameter at breast height; bark gray-yellowish, finely verrucose; sapwood white; twig internodes 0.3–1.4 × 0.5–1.5 cm, spotted with whitish lenticels, glabrous, dark brown; petioles 4.00–8.50 × 0.20–0.25 cm, adaxially flat with cracks on the petiolar scar, spaced 2.0– 4.5 mm, abaxially convex with longitudinal wrinkles, thickened and darkened at the base, finely verrucose, glabrous; stipules unknown, stipular scar as long as the petiole; leaf blades 12.5–23.0 × 6.0–11.0 cm, elliptic, rarely obovate or lanceolate, obtuse-subobtuse or rarely acute at the base, not evidently decurrent on the petiole, obtuse-subobtuse or rarely acute at the apex, coriaceous, with 10–12 secondary veins, glabrous or glabrate; flowers creamy-white with purple color on the distal adaxial half of petals, pedunculate, spathaceous bract 1, peduncular scars 1–3; sepals 3, 7.1–8.5 × 4.0– 5.5 cm, cochleate, coriaceous, tablet-like when dried; petals 6, in two whorls; outer petals 7.0–8.3 × 4.0– 5.5 cm, 1.8 cm wide at the base, obovate, thicker and firm; inner petals 6.9–8.1 × 3.8–5.3 cm, 1.5 mm wide at the base, obovate, thinner and flexible; stamens ca. 200, yellow with some purple stain on inner base and tip, 1.50 × 0.19 cm, the connective obtuse to rounded; gynoecium ovoid 3.0–3.5 × 2.0– 2.8 cm, with 46–56 united carpels; styles tongue-like, 4 mm long, brown, discrete; fruit spheroid to high spheroid 8.5–9.0 × 7.5–8.5 cm, the fruit axis 7.5–9.0 × 3.5–4.5 cm, obovoid to ellipsoid, obtuse to acute at the apex, cuneate at the base, the cells 1.5–2.8 × 0.4–1.0 cm., 0.6–1.0 cm deep; carpels striate at the base, dorsally rugose, with an arched but non humped dorsal wall, occasionally with an ascending apex; seeds 1–2 per carpel, 1.2 × 1.2 cm, sub-orbicular and somewhat flattened, paired seeds 1.4 × 0.8 cm, some appearing prismatic with a flat side, with a fleshy, scarlet and shiny red sarcotesta.

Figures

FIGURE 1. A. Flower bud with spathaceous bract. B. Flower with reflexed sepals. C. Open flower tinged with purple at the distal adaxial half of outer and inner petals. D. Trunk of a 35 m tall tree. E. Subglobose fruit. F. Fruit axis with seeds, after circumscissile dehiscence. (Photographs A, B, C, E and F by J. A. Vázquez-García; D by M. A. Muñiz-Castro.)