Capsicum friburgense Bianch. & Barboza, Syst. Bot. 30(4): 865. 2005.

Barboza, Gloria E., Garcia, Carolina Carrizo, Bianchetti, Luciano de Bem, Romero, Maria V. & Scaldaferro, Marisel, 2022, Monograph of wild and cultivated chili peppers (Capsicum L., Solanaceae), PhytoKeys 200, pp. 1-423 : 1

18. Capsicum friburgense Bianch. & Barboza, Syst. Bot. 30(4): 865. 2005.

Figs 64 , 65

Type.

Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Mun. Nova Friburgo, subindo o Morro da Caledonia , a 6.45 km do Camping Club do Brasil (RJ.2), 22°17'S, 42°32'W, 1800 m elev., 6 Apr 1986, L. Bianchetti, A.T. Hunziker, V. Casali & G.P. Silva 393 (holotype: CEN [CEN00010214]; isotypes: CORD [CORD00003939, CORD00003940, CORD00004164]) .

Description.

Erect shrubs 0.8-2.5 (-3) m tall, with the main stem 0.8-1.5 cm in diameter at base, few to much branched above, the branches pendulous dichotomously spreading in a typical “zig-zag” appearance. Young stems angled, fragile, green, glabrescent, with sparse appressed-antrorse, simple, uniseriate, 2-3-celled, eglandular trichomes 0.2-0.5 mm long and abundant minute glandular trichomes (stalk translucent, unicellular, head dark and multicellular); nodes solid, green or slightly purple; bark of older stems dark brown, smooth, glabrous; lenticels absent. Sympodial units difoliate, the leaves geminate; leaf pair unequal in size, similar in shape. Leaves membranous, concolorous to slightly discolorous, glabrescent on both sides, especially on the margins and veins, with antrorse, curved, 3-5-celled, eglandular trichomes 0.3-0.7 mm long; blades of major leaves (5.5-) 8.5-13 (-21) cm long, (1.5-) 2.5-4.5 (-7.5) cm wide, ovate to elliptic, the major veins 6-7 on each side of mid-vein, the base short-attenuate or attenuate, unequal, the margins entire, the apex acuminate; petioles 0.6-1.2 (-1.5) cm, glabrescent; blades of minor leaves (1.8-) 2.2-3.3 (-5) cm long, 0.9-2 (-2.5) cm wide, elliptic or ovate, the major veins 3-5 on each side of mid-vein, the base rounded, the margins entire, the apex acute; petioles 0.2-0.5 cm, glabrescent. Inflorescences axillary, 2-flowered or flowers solitary; flowering pedicels (17-) 21-49 (-65) mm long, angled, erect or slightly spreading, geniculate at anthesis, green, glabrous or glabrescent, the eglandular trichomes minute, antrorse; pedicels scars inconspicuous. Buds ovoid, entirely purple or fuchsia. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx 2-3 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, cup-shaped, green, thin, strongly 5-nerved, glabrescent with short, uniseriate, eglandular trichomes on the margin and minute glandular trichomes on the tube similar to those of the stem and leaves, the calyx appendages five, 1.2-3 (-3.5) mm long, subequal, erect or spreading, glabrescent. Corolla (7-) 9-12 (-15) mm long, 7.5-10.5 mm in diameter, entirely violet or fuchsia at anthesis; campanulate-urceolate without interpetalar membrane, lobed at the apex, glabrous adaxially and abaxially, the tube 4-6 mm long, the lobes (1.5-) 2-3 (-4) mm long, (1.5-) 2-3 (-4) mm wide, broadly triangular, spreading to strongly recurved at anthesis, the margins and tips densely papillate or with short eglandular trichomes, the tips cucullate. Stamens five, equal; filaments (4-) 5-6 (-7) mm long, lilac, inserted on the corolla 1.5-1.75 mm from the base, with auricles fused to the corolla at the point of insertion; anthers 1.5-2 (-2.5) mm, ellipsoid, yellowish-white, grey-purple post-dehiscent, not connivent at anthesis. Gynoecium with ovary ca. 1.8 mm long, 1.2 mm in diameter, light green, globose to ovoid; ovules more than two per locule; nectary ca. 0.3 mm tall; styles homomorphic, (5-6) 8-11 mm, barely exserted beyond the anthers, white, clavate; stigma ca. 0.3 mm long, 1 mm wide, discoid-depressed, pale green. Berry (4-) 6-10 mm in diameter, globose or globose-depressed, light green and pungent when immature, dark green to greenish-golden yellow and scarcely pungent to rather sweet at maturity, deciduous, the pericarp thin, translucent, with giant cells (endocarp alveolate); stone cells absent; fruiting pedicels 35-65 mm long, pendent, angled, widened distally, green, the receptacle inflated and forming a weak annular constriction in the limit with the calyx; fruiting calyx 4-4.5 mm in diameter, persistent, not accrescent, green, discoid, the appendages 2-4 mm long, spreading or slightly reflexed. Seeds (2-) 4-9 per fruit, 2.5-3.2 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, C-shaped, brownish-black to black, the seed coat reticulate and tuberculate at margins (SM), reticulate-cerebelloid with pillar-like outgrowths at margins (SEM), the cells polygonal in seed body and elongate at hilum zone, the lateral walls straight, sometimes wavy in seed body; embryo imbricate.

Distribution.

Capsicum friburgense is an endemic species restricted to a narrow area in the centre of Rio de Janeiro State (Brazil) (Fig. 66 ).

Ecology.

Capsicum friburgense grows in one of the most protected areas of the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica), which has the highest elevations of the Serra do Mar. It is found in the understorey of primary forests of the Floresta Pluvial Montana (Floresta Ombrófila Densa Altomontana), from 1,750 to 1,950 m elevation.

Phenology.

Flowering from December to May. Fruiting from February to May.

Chromosome number.

n = 13 ( Pozzobon and Schifino-Wittmann 2006; Pozzobon et al. 2006, as Capsicum sp. 8).

Common names.

None recorded.

Uses.

None recorded.

Preliminary conservation assessment.

EOO (123.163 km2); AOO (24 km2). Capsicum friburgense grows in two forested areas that have been set aside as Environmental Protection Areas in Rio de Janeiro, the APA do Caledônia ( Maciço da Caledônia) and the Parque Estadual dos Três Picos. It has a small population (<250 mature individuals) with not more than 10 subpopulations per site. Observers are seeing a continuing decline of subpopulations size, due to serious environmental pressures caused by deforestation, development and changes in hydrology. In recent years, these protected areas faced important natural disasters, including forest fires (2007, 2011 and 2019), great floods and mudslides (2011, see Rosi et al. 2019), all of which caused a loss of biodiversity. Due to all these factors, we assign C. friburgense the threat status of Critically Endangered (CR; C2a(i)).

Discussion.

Capsicum friburgense is a beautiful species of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest clade ( Carrizo García et al. 2016) with one of the narrowest ranges in the genus. It stands out from other species of the genus in its combination of a distinctive, campanulate-urceolate, entirely pink or lilac corollas with recurved lobes at anthesis and fruiting pedicels up to 65 mm long, the longest of all the Brazilian species (Fig. 65C-E ).

Capsicum friburgense is sympatric in Nova Friburgo (Rio de Janeiro) with C. mirabile ; both species have a calyx with five appendages and geniculate pedicels and they have similar colour and morphology of fruit and seeds. Capsicum friburgense differs from C. mirabile in having one or two flowers per node, campanulate-urceolate corollas without spots and fruiting pedicels up to 65 mm long (vs. 2-5 flowers per node, multi-coloured stellate corollas and fruiting pedicels up to 32 mm long in C. mirabile ).

Specimens examined.

See Suppl. material 4: Appendix 4.

Figures

Figure 64. Capsicum friburgense A flowering branch B flower C calyx D sector of opened corolla E gynoecium F fruit G seed. From Bianchetti et al. 393. Drawn by L. Sanchez. Published in Barboza and Bianchetti (2005), reproduced with permission.

Figure 65. Capsicum friburgense A plant B flower buds C flower, in lateral view D flower, seen from behind E immature fruit A, B from Barboza et al. 2048, photo by G. E. Barboza C-E no specimen vouchers, photos taken in situ by C. dal Zovo (Associazione PepperFriends).

Figure 66. Distribution of C. friburgense, C. galapagoense and C. geminifolium.