Lycianthes mariovelizii E.Dean, Brittonia 70: 482. 2018

Dean, Ellen, Poore, Jennifer, Anguiano-Constante, Marco Antonio, Nee, Michael H., Kang, Hannah, Starbuck, Thomas, Rodrigues, Annamarie & Conner, Matthew, 2020, The genus Lycianthes (Solanaceae, Capsiceae) in Mexico and Guatemala, PhytoKeys 168, pp. 1-333 : 1

28 Lycianthes mariovelizii E.Dean, Brittonia 70: 482. 2018 Fig. 62

Type.

Guatemala. Huehuetenango: Mpio. Santa Ana Huista, N of Parque Victoria aquatic center, Aldea El Tabacal, bank above the Río Santa Ana, upstream of the sumidero, 15.6949, -91.8721, 753 m, 15 Aug 2017, E. Dean 9509 (holotype: BIGU [acc. # 76960]; isotypes: BIGU [acc. # 76959], DAV [acc. # 221941, acc. # 221937], MEXU, NY).

Description.

Shrub, 0.75-2 m tall, erect. Indument of light yellow (sometimes appearing tan or off-white), uniseriate, multicellular, simple, eglandular, appressed-ascending trichomes 0.1-1 (1.5) mm long. Stems green with small light green lenticular vertical striations when young, sparsely to moderately pubescent, not much compressed when dried in a plant press, becoming brown and woody with age; upper sympodial branching points monochasial or dichasial. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 5.5-14 × 2-7 cm, the smaller ones with blades 2-7 × 1-4.5 cm, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate to elliptic, chartaceous, glabrous to sparsely (moderately) pubescent, the trichomes usually densely spreading outward (towards the margins) along the abaxial veins, especially at the base of the main vein, the base cuneate to attenuate, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually irregularly undulate, the apex acuminate, the petiole 0.2-1.5 cm long, sometimes absent, the larger leaf blades with 5-6 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary or in groups of 2-3, axillary, oriented horizontally; peduncles absent; pedicels (8) 10-18 mm long and erect in flower, 15-25 mm long and erect in fruit, sparsely to moderately pubescent; calyx 2-3 mm long, 4-5 mm in diameter, obconic to campanulate, sparsely to moderately pubescent, the margin truncate, with 10 spreading linear appendages 5-11 mm long (appendages on the same calyx of varying lengths, but at least some appendages on the same calyx> 7 mm long), the base of the appendages flattened and 0.5-1 mm wide, emerging ca. 0.25-0.5 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, bowl-shaped to rotate, 2-3 mm long, 5-7 mm in diameter, the appendages 5-14 mm long, to 1.5 mm wide at the flattened base; corolla 0.9-1.8 cm long, rotate in orientation, mostly entire in outline (with shallow notches), with abundant interpetalar tissue, white, the adaxial side with three green spots located between the short stamens, glabrous, the abaxial side of the lobes green, sparsely to moderately puberulent near the major veins; stamens unequal, straight, the four short filaments 1-2 mm long, the one long filament 3-5 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 4-6 mm long, lanceolate, free of one another, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, the pores of the longest stamen dehiscing toward the style, the pores of the shorter stamens dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 8-9 mm long, linear, glabrous, the stigma oblong, decurrent down two sides, slightly lobed. Fruit a berry, 10-11 mm long, 10-12 mm in diameter, globose to depressed globose, orange (red) at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 10-40 per fruit, 2.5-3 × 2-2.5 mm, flattened, nearly circular to oval in outline, not obviously notched (if slightly indented, indentation is usually less than 0.3 mm), yellow-orange, the surface reticulum with indistinct serpentine pattern and shallow luminae.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca), Guatemala (Huehuetenango, El Progreso), El Salvador, and Nicaragua, in oak or oak-pine forest, tropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, often on calcareous soils, sometimes near drainages, 700-1000 m in elevation (1600 m in El Salvador) (Fig. 63 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

Flowering specimens have been collected from July through November; specimens with mature fruits have been collected September through December. The corollas of this species are open in the early morning and closed by late morning ( Dean et al. 2018c).

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes mariovelizii is a widespread but poorly collected species ranging from southern Mexico to Nicaragua, represented by only nine collections and occurring in eight protected areas. The EOO is 87,389.609 km2, and the AOO is 32 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Least Concern (LC).

Discussion.

Lycianthes mariovelizii belongs to series Tricolores and is distinguished from most of the other species in the series by long calyx appendages (to 11 mm in flower and 14 mm in fruit) that are somewhat flattened and relatively wide at the base (appearing very flattened when dried). Within a calyx, the appendages often vary in length, but at least some of the appendages on a calyx are greater than 7 mm long and 1 mm wide at the base. The only species in series Tricolores with appendages similarly long and wide is L. surotatensis , a species with glandular trichomes ( Dean et al. 2018c). Within the series, L. mariovelizii is most similar to L. arrazolensis , L. jalicensis , and L. surotatensis , three species with which L. mariovelizii shares the following characters: unnotched seeds, white corollas, and occurrence mostly below 1000 m. Lycianthes mariovelizii differs from L. surotatensis by eglandular trichomes. It differs from L. arrazolensis and L. jalicensis by longer calyx appendages inserted <0.5 mm below the calyx rim, versus> 0.5 mm. The appendages of L. arrazolensis are typically <2.5 mm long, rarely reaching 5 mm in Guerrero; those of L. jalicensis are typically <5 mm long. Also, the calyx and corolla of L. jalicensis are usually glabrous or nearly so, whereas those of L. mariovelizii are pubescent ( Dean et al. 2018c). A collection of L. mariovelizii (Steyermark 51177) was listed by Gentry and Standley (1974) as a difficult to place collection and unnamed taxon at the end of their treatment of Lycianthes in Flora of Guatemala; Dean et al. (2017a) listed a different specimen of L. mariovelizii in their Specimen Group E in their section on difficult to place collections at the end of their paper on series Tricolores (E. M. Martínez S. 23237 - listed in the paper as Droege 23237).

Representative specimens examined.

Guatemala. Huehuetenango: Paso del Boquerón, Río Trapichillo, below La Libertad [15.5174, 91.8385], 1200-1300 m, 21 Aug 1942, J.A. Steyermark 51177 (F); El Progreso: a 2 km al N de Los Leones, camino El Rancho-Cobán, 14.95, -90.2, 4 Aug 1988, E.M. Martínez S. 23237 (MEXU, MO, NY). Mexico. Chiapas: Mpio. Frontera Comalapa, 6-8 km E of Frontera Comalapa along road to Ciudad Cuahtémoc, [15.6916, -92.0871], 1000 m, 15 Aug 1972, D. Breedlove 27009 (CAS, MEXU, MO). Oaxaca: Dto. Pochutla, Mpio. San Miguel del Puerto, en el Cafetal Arroyo Arena, 15.9778, -96.1006, 700 m, 16 Nov 2003, A. Nava-Zafra 205 (DAV).

Figures

Figure 62. Image of isotype of L. mariovelizii, Dean 9509 (DAV). Image used with permission of the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity.

Figure 63. Map of geographic distribution of L. mariovelizii based on herbarium specimen data.