Schlechtendalia Lessing (1830: 242–243)

Ferreira, Paola De Lima, Antonelli, Alexandre & Groppo, Milton, 2021, Touch me carefully: a step towards understanding morphological diversity in the South American spiny sunflowers (Compositae, Barnadesioideae), Phytotaxa 518 (2), pp. 109-142 : 135

10. Schlechtendalia Lessing (1830: 242–243)

Type: — Schlechtendalia luzulifolia Less.

Perennial herbs, up to 1 m tall, unarmed. Leaves opposite on stems, rosulate at base, amplexicaul, sessile, persistent, blade linear, chartaceous, pale or lustrous, sericeous or lanate, margin flat or slightly revolute, ciliate, apex spiny; nervation parallelodromous. Capitulescence terminal or axillary, monocephalous, cymose, corymbiform, racemose, or umbellate. Capitula homogamous, discoid, 50–100 flowered, pedunculate, involucre turbinate or hemispherical, 5–7- seriate, phyllaries chartaceous, green, brownish, erect or reflexed, sericeous, lanceolate, apex spiny, margin flat, ciliate. Receptacle flat, pilose. Flowers isomorphic, bisexual, corolla subbilabiate (4+1), 5-lobed, yellow, externally and throat villous. Anthers 5, apical appendage obtuse, basal appendage acute, short-sagittated, ecalcarate, ecaudate, inserted between the base and the throat, filaments free, glabrous. Style cylindrical, yellow. Cypselae turbinate, densely villous. Pappus scaly, lanceolate, shorter than the corolla, scarious, glabrous. Pollen with one depression per mesocolpus, sparsely microechinate (Suessy & Urtubey 2007. Chromosome number = 8 ( Cialdella & López 1981).

Fig. 9 ; 10d .

Distribution and habitat: —The genus Schlechtendalia is monotypic, represented only by S. luzulifolia , and occurs in the Pampa vegetation (grassland) in southern Brazil, Uruguay, and adjacent areas of Argentina ( Stuessy et al. 1996, 2009). In Brazil, Schlechtendalia luzulifolia is classified as an endangered species, since the Pampas biome has lost almost 54% of its original vegetation ( Nakajima et al. 2013).

Notes: — Schlechtendalia is clearly a member of Barnadesioideae since it displays the “barnadesioids trichomes” and subbilabilate corollas ( Gustafsson et al. 2001). However, it has a set of morphological features that diverge from the rest of the subfamily, including the unarmed habit, and the opposite leaves on stems, basally rosulate leaves with parallelodromous venation. Besides these traits, the pappus is glabrous and narrow-scaly (also found in Duseniella ) without the pappus bristles ( Gustafsson et al. 2001). Moreover, it is the only genus totally absent in xeric areas ( Stuessy et al. 2009).

The phylogenetic position of Schlechtendalia within Barnadesioideae remains uncertain. It has been proposed as the sister group to the rest of the subfamily ( Stuessy et al. 1996, Urtubey & Stuessy, 2001, Gruenstaeudl et al. 2009, Ferreira et al. 2019, Ferreira et al. in prep.), and as sister to the Doniophyton and Duseniella clade ( Bremer 1994); Chuquiraga and Doniophyton ( Gustafsson et al. 2001) ; the Archidasyphyllum , Arnaldoa and Fulcaldea clade (Gustaffson et al. 2001); or the Barnadesia and Huarpea clade (Gruenstauedl et al. 2009). New ongoing studies focusing on Barnadesioideae phylogeny (Ferreira et al. in prep.) may clarify the phylogenetic position of Schlechtendalia .

Iconography: —Suessy & Urtubey (2007).

Accepted species: — Schlechtendalia luzulifolia Less.

Selected specimens examined: — ARGENTINA. Entre Ríos: Colón, paraje la Calera, márgenes del Río Uruguay, desembocadura del arroyo Perucho Vema em Río Uruguay , 21–22 December 1998, P.M. Simon 88 (WU). Colón , Parque Nacional El Palmar , Palmar de Butia Yatay , Sendero La Glorieta , 31°53’08’’, 58°16’22’’W, 14 December 2014, M.S. Ferrucci 3196 (HUEFS). Confederación, Confederación, 18 December 1963, A. Burkart 24972 (SI) . BRAZIL. Rio Grande do Sul: Alegrete, Estância Cerro do Tigre, cerro da ponte, 141 m, 29°39’48’’S, 55°23’40’’W, 25 October 2012, G. Heiden 2008 (SPF). Itapoã, Chacara Weber, 18 December 1948, B. Rambo SJ 38950 (B). Jaguarão, BR 116, entre Arroio Grande e Jaguarão, 44 m, 32°30’2’’S, 53°19’15’’W, 03 January 2011, G. Heiden 1455 (SPF). Livramento, Cerro Palomas, D.F.M. Valls 1379 (RB). Porto Alegre, Morro da Policia , 18 January 1964, E. Pereira 8490 (RB) . São Lourenço do Sul, BR116, main road from Pelotas to Porto Alegre, between arroio S. Isabel & R. Camaqua (km 167), 02 December 1979, T.M. Pedersen 12612 (MBM) . URUGUAY. Maldonado, Sierra Ballena, 23 December 1964, Del Puerto 3867/4348 ( US). Maldonado, Punta Ballena, Bosque Lussich, 09 February 1943, Rosengurtt B 4507 ( US). Maldonado, Cerro San Antonio, just above Puerto Antonio, 0.9 km SE of Piriápolis (jct. rd to Punta del Este), 09 February 1993, T.F. Stuessy 12810 (WU). Maldonado, Punta Ballena (La Bellena), about ½ distance from Piriápolis and Punta del Este (ca. 28 km E of Piriápolis), 09 February 1993, T.F. Stuessy 12820 (WU). San José, Balneario Kiyú al E, 14 November 1991, D. Bayce s.n. ( US) .

Figures

FIGURE 9. Schlechtendalia luzulifolia. A: Brazilian Pampas. B: Grassy-like habit. C: Capitulum with subbilabiate corollas. Photos by Gustavo Heiden (A and C) and Mauricio Bonifacino (B).

FIGURE 10. Geographical distribution for the genera of Barnadesioideae. A: Dasyphyllum. B: Chuquiraga. C: Barnadesia (red dots) and Huarpea (blue triangle). D: Doniophyton (blue triangles); E: Archidasyphyllum (blue triangles); Fulcaldea (blue triangles)—these words (triagle) in plural (triangles).