Lycianthes nitida Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Verein Bremen 24 [preprint]: 501. 1919

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

31 Lycianthes nitida Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Verein Bremen 24 [preprint]: 501. 1919 Fig. 72

Solanum calochromum S.F.Blake, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 24: 21. 1922. Type: Honduras. Between Hacienda El Limon and El Paraiso, 12 May 1919, S. Blake 7370 (holotype: US [00027489]).

Type.

Guatemala. [Alta Verapaz]: Cubilqüitz, [Cubilhuitz], [15.6675, -90.4293], 350 m, Aug 1907, H. von Tuerkheim II 59 (lectotype designated by Dean and Reyes 2018a, pg. 43: BR [000000552878]; isolectotypes E [E00190704], GH [00936250], GH [00936251], M, NY [00007318, 00007334], U [U-0113931], US [00027489, 00624006], WIS).

Description.

Shrub, treelet, or woody vine, sometimes epiphytic, 2-6 m tall. Indument of tan to brownish, uniseriate, multicellular simple, eglandular, curved or spreading trichomes 0.1-0.5 mm long (mostly glabrous). Stems green when young, glabrous to very sparsely pubescent, not compressed upon drying in a plant press, quickly becoming woody (glossy pale grey with longitudinal wrinkles upon drying); upper sympodial branching points mostly monochasial. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually paired, the leaf pairs often conspicuously different in size and shape, the larger ones with blades 8-25 × 2-9 cm, ovate (usually narrowly so), lanceolate, elliptic, or oblanceolate, the smaller ones with blades 1.75-8 × 1.3-6.7 cm, suborbicular, ovate or obovate, the leaf pairs similar in texture, coriaceous, usually glabrous, the base rounded to cuneate (usually oblique on larger leaves), the margin entire, usually undulate, the apex acute to acuminate on larger leaves, acute to rounded on smaller leaves, the petiole to 3 cm long, sometimes absent, the larger leaf blades with 6-10 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary or in groups of 2-11 (30), axillary, erect; peduncles absent or present as a short stub 3-5 mm long, with many pedical scars; pedicels 4-18 mm and erect in flower, to 28 mm long and erect in fruit, glabrous; calyx 1.75-4 mm long, 2.5-5 mm in diameter, widely campanulate, glabrous, the margin truncate, the appendages lacking; fruiting calyx enlarged, widely bowl-shaped, 1-4 mm long, 5-9 mm in diameter; corolla 0.6-1.3 cm long, rotate to reflexed in orientation, stellate in outline, deeply divided to the base, lacking interpetalar tissue, adaxially blue to purple and glabrous, abaxially creamy white, pinkish, or pale green and glabrous, sometimes with a linear appendage to 1 mm long at the lobe tips; stamens equal, straight, the filaments 1-2 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 5-6.5 mm long, ovate, connivent at edges to adjacent anther, forming a cone, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 5-10 mm long, linear, straight, glabrous, the stigma capitate. Fruit a berry, 4-12 mm long, 5-10 mm in diameter, globose to depressed globose, green to white when immature, orange to red at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 50-250 per fruit, 1-2 × 1-2 mm, flattened to slightly curved, triangular, rectangular, or depressed ovate in outline, yellow to yellow orange, sometimes the margin lighter in color than the center, the surface reticulum with minute serpentine pattern and shallow luminae.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico, (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz), Guatemala (Alta Verapaz, Huehuetenango, Izabal, Petén), Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama in high forest, tropical moist forest, tropical rain forest, cloud forest, montane rain forest, tropical dry forest, and Liquidambar forest, sometimes in forest clearings or disturbed areas, including agricultural areas, or along drainages or on slopes or ridges, sometimes on limestone, 200-1000 m in elevation (Fig. 73 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

Flowering specimens and specimens with mature fruits have been collected March through December. Possibly flowering and fruiting throughout the year in some locations. Corollas opening at night ( Nee 1986) or in the morning, closed in the afternoon (from Nee 18808).

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes nitida is a widespread species ranging from southern Mexico to Costa Rica, represented by 94 collections and occurring in 10 protected areas. The EOO is 564,238.851 km2, and the AOO is 352 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Least Concern (LC).

Discussion.

Lycianthes nitida is a relatively common and widely distributed (southern Mexico through Central America) epiphytic herb or shrub with calyces lacking appendages, purple, stellate corollas, and equal stamens. Its distinctive shiny, glabrous, coriaceous leaves, in which the geminate leaf pairs are of very different shapes and sizes (the smaller leaf much shorter and rounder than the larger) makes this species difficult to confuse with similar species that lack calyx appendages, such as L. heteroclita and L. synanthera . Lycianthes nitida may be confused with L. anomala , another epiphyte with stellate corollas and equal stamens, but L. anomala has short appendages on its calyx and tufts of trichomes in the vein axils of the underside of the leaves.

Representative specimens examined.

Guatemala. Alta Verapaz: 7 miles up road to Oxec along road which turns off Highway 7E between Tucúru and El Estor CA 6 km NE of Panzós, 700 m, 20 Jul 1977, T.B. Croat 41622 (MO). Huehuetenango: between Ixcan and Río Ixcan, Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, bordering Río Lacandón, 150-200 m, 23 Jul 1942, J.A. Steyermark 49352 (NY). Izabal: Mpio. Puerto Barrios, en la torre de Guatel, Sierra del Mico, 940 m, 8 Sep 1988, E.M. Martínez S. 23554 (MO). Petén: El Petén, La Cumbre on las Cañas, on 142/143 km of El Petén / Izabal road, 6 Mar 1975, C.L. Lundell 19056 (DUKE, MO). Mexico. Chiapas: Mpio. Ocosingo, al N de la Estación Chajul, 16.0833, -90.4167, 180 m, 23 Jun 2000, S. Sinaca-C. 2548 (XAL). Oaxaca: Mpio. Santa María Chimalapa, San Antonio Nuevo Paraíso, a 3 km al W, Plan de la Ceiba, 17.1625, -94.3711, 250 m, 21 Sep 1997, E. Torres 1353 (IEB, BIGU, XAL). Veracruz: Rancho "El Milagro," 5 km en línea recta al sureste de la colonia Nueva Tabasquenia, 17.53, -94.0289, 115 m, 5 Aug 2002, E. López 195 (XAL).

Figures

Figure 72. Image of herbarium specimen of L. nitida, S. Sinaca C. 53 (WIS). Specimen used with permission from Wisconsin State Herbarium, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Figure 73. Map of geographic distribution of L. nitida from Mexico to Costa Rica based on herbarium specimen data.