Miconia indicoviolacea Gamba, Almeda & Alvear, 2014

Gamba, Diana, Almeda, Frank & Alvear, Marcela, 2014, Miconia indicoviolacea (Melastomataceae: Miconieae): a new Colombian species from the western flanks of the cordillera Occidental, Phytotaxa 177 (3), pp. 171-176 : 171-174

Miconia indicoviolacea Gamba, Almeda & Alvear , sp. nov.

Distinguished by the dark blue inflorescence peduncle and branches, aristate-caudate leaf apices, minute glandular-puberulent vegetative and hypanthial indumentum, dorsally appendiculate stamens, and seeds with a conspicuous appendage at the chalazal end and a raphal zone that is approximately the double the size of the seed corpus.

Type:— COLOMBIA. Valle del Cauca:municipio de Dagua,corregimiento El Queremal , Parque Nacional Natural Farallones de Cali , Alto Anchicayá , trail off of (upslope) Quebrada La Riqueza , cordillera Occidental , vertiente occidental, 03°39.998’N, 76°53.609’W, 650−810 m, 6 February 2011, F . Almeda, M. Alvear , D. Penneys, G. Ocampo , D. Alvear, I. Alegría 10277 (holotype: COL!; isotypes: CAS!, CUVC!, HUA!, NY!) .

Shrub to 1 m tall with open and scraggly branching, bark greenish. Upper internodes rounded-quadrate, 5.75−6.3 cm long, bluntly grooved, green, cauline nodes terete, nodal line absent. Indumentum on branchlets, petioles, leaf surface, primary, secondary, tertiary and higher order veins adaxially and abaxially, inflorescence axes, bracts, bracteoles, pedicels, hypanthia, calyx lobes abaxially, and exterior calyx teeth sparsely and caducously composed of resinous short stalked glands 0.15−0.25 mm long with thin-walled short to slightly elongate heads, the translucent stalks dark brown, the resinous heads light brown. Leaves of each pair somewhat anisophyllous in size; the thin petioles 3.5−4.7 cm long (on larger leaves) or 0.8−2.3 cm long (on smaller leaves), canaliculate adaxially, bluntly grooved and fluted abaxially, green to dark blue; larger blades 10−15.3 × 4−7 cm, smaller blades 6.6−9.2 × 2.85−4.2 cm, ovate to elliptic-ovate, the base broadly obtuse to rounded, the margin entire and obscurely ciliolate, the apex aristate-caudate, membranaceous; mature leaves adaxially with resinous glands on surface mostly 0.25 mm long; abaxial surface soon glabrescent; 5–(7-)plinerved, including the tenuous marginals, innermost pair of secondary veins diverging somewhat asymmetrically from the primary vein 0.3−0.5 cm above the base and producing a membrane-like structure at the point where the primary and secondary veins diverge from one another (acarodomatia?), areolae 0.5−1 mm, adaxially the primary, secondary, tertiary and higher order veins slightly impressed, abaxially the primary vein elevated and terete, the secondary, tertiary and higher order veins slightly raised and terete. Inflorescence a pendant pseudolateral thyrse 6.7−7.4 to 10 cm long in fruit (including the peduncle 1.7−2.7 cm long), blue to dark violet, divaricately branched, inflorescence nodes somewhat thickened; bracts 0.6−1.9 × 0.25−0.45 mm (the lowermost longer than the uppermost), oblong-linear to ovate-oblong, sometimes tapering to a translucent tooth-like apex, glabrous, persistent in fruit; bracteoles 0.4−2 × 0.2−0.6 mm, ovate-oblong, sometimes tapering to a translucent tooth-like apex, somewhat thickened dorso-ventrally, glabrescent, persistent in fruit. Flowers 5-merous on pedicels 0.6−1.2 mm long. Hypanthium at anthesis 2.1−2.3 × 1−2.2 mm (free portion of hypanthium 0.8 mm long), globose to urceolate, bluntly 10-ribbed, green to bluish, sparsely covered with clavate glands to 0.2 mm long, the ridged inner surface densely covered with white-translucent sessile glands, the torus adaxially beset with caducous brown-translucent glands less than 0.2 mm long. Calyx open in bud and persistent in fruit, white to dark blue; tube 0.3 mm long with the same vestiture as the torus adaxially and as the hypanthium abaxially; lobes 0.25−0.4 × 0.8 mm, broadly triangular to semicircular, the margin vaguely undulate, the apex blunt; exterior teeth 0.3−0.4 mm long, narrowly tuberculiform, inserted at the base of the calyx tube, not exceeding the calyx lobes. Petals 3.7−4.5 × 0.7−1.3 mm, oblong, the margin entire to vaguely undulate, the apex bluntly acute, white, glabrous on both surfaces, erect at anthesis. Stamens 10; filaments 1.7 × 0.25 mm, white, glabrous; anther thecae 1.5−1.7 × 0.5−0.6 mm, oblong, truncate to slightly emarginate at the apex, opening by one dorsally inclined pore 0.1−0.15 mm in diameter, white; connective somewhat darker than the thecae, its prolongation and appendage 0.6−0.7 mm long, the appendage oblong, rounded to truncate at the apex, minutely and sparsely beset with sessile white-translucent glands present also throughout the connective. Ovary 5-locular, 3/4 inferior, 1.8−1.9 mm long at anthesis, the apical collar absent, the apex forming a shallow bowl-like depression 0.4 mm in diameter, glandular-puberulent; style 3.5−3.8 mm long, white, glabrous; stigma expanded-truncate. Berries 3−3.5 × 3.5−4 mm when dry, globose-oblate, green becoming bluish when ripe, the hypanthial indumentum persistent at maturity. Seeds 0.26−0.35 × 0.19−0.2 mm, ovoid, somewhat angled, brownish; lateral and antiraphal symmetrical planes ovoid, the highest point toward the chalazal side or near the central part of the seed. Raphal zone suboblong, ca. twice as long as the seed corpus, ventrally and laterally expanded, dark-brown. Appendage present at the chalazal end, ca. 0.26−0.27 mm long, translucent-white. Individual cells elongated and isodiametric, the latter only located at the highest part of the seed, anticlinal boundaries inconspicuous; periclinal walls par-convex, high-domed, microrelief absent.

Additional specimens examined (paratypes): ― COLOMBIA. Nariño: municipio de Barbacoas, corregimiento de Junín, Reserva Natural de las Aves El Pangán, Sendero El Pangán , 1°21.539’ N, 78°5.097’ W, 719 m, 8 February 2013, Alvear M. et al. 1800 ( CAS!, COL!, CUVC!, NY!, PSO!) ; Valle del Cauca: municipio de Dagua, corregimiento El Queremal, Parque Nacional Natural Farallones de Cali , sector Alto Anchicayá , Sendero de la quebrada La Riqueza , 3° 36.072’ N, 76° 53.627’ W, 796 m, 10 January 2013, Alvear M. et al. 1547 ( CAS!, COL!, CUVC!, NY!) .

Habitat, distribution and ecology:— A local species known only from cloud forests on the western slope of the Western Cordillera of the Andes in the departments of Valle del Cauca and Nariño in Colombia, at 650−810 m.

Phenology:— Collected in flower and fruit in January and February.

Etymology:— The specific epithet refers to the vivid blue and violet coloring of the petioles, inflorescence rachis and other floral parts as seen in living material.

Conservation status:— This species is known only from two localities on the western flank of the cordillera Occidental. One of them is situated within the Farallones de Cali National Park which has an area of 2067.7 km 2 and an elevational gradient from 200 m up to 4100 m ( Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia 2013) . In that region this species is only known to grow between 700− 800 m. The other location is within the Reserva Natural de las Aves El Pangán which has an area of 603 km 2 and an elevational gradient between 500−1900 m ( Fundación Proaves 2010). At that locality this species is only known to grow around 700 m.

Based on georeferenced data from the known collections, GeoCAT ( Bachman et al. 2011) was used to calculate extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO) based on a user defined cell of 2 km. The extent of occurrence for Miconia indicovioacea is 478.570 km ² and the area of occupancy is 12.000 km ². Using IUCN guidelines and criteria ( IUCN 2014), we assign this species a conservation status of Endangered EN B1ab(iii).