Cyathea pauciflora (Kuhn) Lellinger (1987

Lehnert, Marcus, 2016, A synopsis of the exindusiate species of Cyathea (Cyatheaceae-Polypodiopsida) with bipinnate-pinnatifid or more complex fronds, with a revision of the C. lasiosora complex, Phytotaxa 243 (1), pp. 1-53 : 23-24

23. Cyathea pauciflora (Kuhn) Lellinger (1987 [1988]: 94). Alsophila pauciflora Kuhn (1869: 156) . Trichipteris pauciflora (Kuhn) Tryon (1970: 46) . Type:— VENEZUELA. Carabobo: “Colombia, Puerto Cabellos,” without date, H. Karsten 185 (lectotype B-20-0000194!, here designated, isolectotypes PR n.v., NY-00148731!/-00148732! [fragment of PR]).

Alsophila hypolampra Kuhn (1869: 158) . Cyathea hypolampra (Kuhn) Domin (1929a: 262) . Type:— VENEZUELA. Mérida: “ Merida,” 1847, H.C. Funck & L.J. Schlim 1571 (lectotype B-20-0000192!, here designated; isolectotypes BM-000937596!, P-00631734!/- 00631735!).

Alsophila novogranadensis Domin (1929b: 97) . Type:— COLOMBIA. Cundinamarca: “In New Grenada, [Río] Tocarema, Andes of Bogotá, alt. 2200 m,” without date, A. Lindig 243 (lectotype P-00631736!, here designated, isolectotypes B-20-0000193!, P-00631737!/-00631738!).

Trunks to 6.0 m tall, to 12 cm diameter, with persisting old petiole bases; adventitious buds not reported. Fronds to 300 cm long, patent to erect, distally arching. Petioles to 50 cm long, likely more, proximally aculeate with spines to 2 mm long, dark ochre or brown, rarely basally blackish, weakly shiny, with abundant scurf consisting of well-spaced, erect, reddish brown, ovate-lanceolate squamules 0.2–0.6 mm long, with entire to lacerate margins; petioles basally with a ± continuous line of narrowly elliptic lenticels, inconspiciously brown in dried material. Petiole scales long-lanceolate, to 32.0 × 4.0–5.0 mm, bases cordate, basifix to pseudopeltately attached, straight to falcate, apices long attenuate, strongly undulate but only weakly twisted, scales discordantly bicolorous, auburn to dark brown, rarely partially blackish, with light brown to yellowish margins, the colors not strongly contrasted; differentiated margins persistent, the cell rows exerted, with short teeth. Laminae to ca. 200 × 120–170 cm, bipinnate-pinnatifid, firm-herbaceous to chartaceous, matte, dark olive-green adaxially, often blackish when dried, paler grayish green abaxially; apices gradually reduced. Rhachises sparsely muricate in proximal parts, otherwise inermous, dark ochre to brown on both sides, sometimes adaxially dark purpureous; sparsely pubescent with whitish to tan multicellular hairs to 1.0 mm long, antrorsely curved to appressed adaxially, abaxially spreading, leaving the cortex smooth when abraded; also with ephemeral scurf similar to petiole scurf. Largest pinnae 60–90 cm long, pinnae subsessile or stalked to 1.0 cm, basal ones to 2.5 cm, ca. 12–15 pairs per frond, patent to weakly ascending, opposite to alternate, inarticulate, distally narrowly green-alate, distal segments simply adnate before ending in a pinnatifid apical section; basal pinna pairs not much smaller than the medial pinnae, reflexed. Costae to 2.5(–3.0) mm wide, inermous, dark ochre to dark brown abaxially, darker adaxially; with antrorsely curved, whitish to tan, multicellular hairs to 1.5 mm long adaxially, abaxially sparsely pubescent with spreading white uniseriate hairs to 1.0 mm long, sometimes proximally with dense, reddish brown scaly scurf similar to petiole scurf; junctures of costae and rhachises not swollen, abaxially often black when dried, without aerophores but sometimes with small pock-like outgrowths to 1 mm diameter. Largest pinnules 70–110 × 15–20 mm, pinnules sessile to subsessile (stalked to 1 mm), inarticulate, 1.3–2.0(–2.2) cm between the stalks/costules, linear-oblong to weakly oblanceolate, truncate to cuneate basally, short- to long-attenuate apically with serrate to crenulate margins; costules dark carnose to atropurpureous adaxially and abaxially, proximally often darker; adaxially strongly prominent, ridged, and densely hairy with whitish to tan, antrorsely curved, multicellular hairs to 1.0(–1.5) mm long, abaxially weakly to strongly prominent, with many appressed, whitish to reddish brown trichomidia and many erect, whitish hairs to 1 mm long, also with some brown to dark brown, flat, ovate to lanceolate scales to 3 mm long with fimbriate margins, and bullate squamules to 1 mm long, with elongate tips; sometimes densely scurfy like the costae; costules basally without pneumathodes, often blackened in dried specimens. Largest segments 7.0–15.0 × 3.0–4.0 mm, segments sessile, adnate, weakly ascending, distally straight to weakly falcate, tips obtuse to rounded, proximal segments alternate to subopposite, usually a bit shorter than following segments, sometimes remote and then strongly crenate; sinuses acute to rectangular, 1–2 mm wide; margins crenulate to crenate; margins not differently incised in proximal segments of a pinnule; midveins strongly protruding on both sides, adaxially ridged, lateral veins planar to weakly protruding adaxially and abaxially, dark carnose to atropurpureous or blackish, ending short before the margins, adaxially with widened, yellowish tips; veins adaxially glabrous exept for some antrorsely curved hairs on the midveins, abaxially with few to many erect, white to yellowish white, multicellular hairs to 1 mm long on a them, also along the margins but not between the veins; midveins with brown bullate squamules to 1.0 × 0.5 mm; sterile veins simple or forked, fertile veins forked. Sori 1.0(–1.2) mm diameter, medial, at vein forks, mature dark orange-brown; indusia lacking; receptacles globose, 0.3–0.4 mm diameter, paraphyses numerous, straight or distally weakly contorted, whitish to tan, only slightly longer than the sporangia (0.4–0.5 mm long). Spores with weakly verrucate exospore, perispore finely baculate ( Gastony 1979).

Distribution and habitat: — Colombia and Venezuela, in the understory of evergreen premontane and montane forest at 800–1650 m.

Selected specimens examined:— COLOMBIA. Antioquia: Medellin, Corregimiento Belén, sector Aguas Frias , Km 2.1 en predios de Alfarea Buenavista, 06º15’N, 75º30’W, 1500 m, 19 February 1987, R. Callejas & O. Escobar 3276 ( UC!) ; Urrao, vereda Calles, Parque Nacional Natural Las Orquideas , Quebrada Honda , 06º29’N, 76º14’W, 1340 m, 7 December 1992, J. Pipoly et al. 16643 ( UC!) . VENEZUELA. Aragua: Altos de Choroni, along road from Maracay to Choroni , ca. 0.5 km beyond ( N of) summit, 10º19’N, 67º34’W, 1550 m, 16 March 1985, T. B. Croat 60525 ( MO!, UC!). Carabobo: Valencia, Cordillera de la Costa, S slope, old hacienda Aguacatal, property of Electricidad de Valencia , w of Valencia, valley of Río Tocuyo , 10º11’N, 68º07’30”W, 1200–1270 m, 20 May 2000, W. Meier & P. Borjas 7076 ( UC!) ; Bejuma, N of Bejuma, between Cerro San Isidro and Cerro de Paja (Cariaprima), 10º16’30”N, 68º13’30”W, 1400–1650 m, 01 November 1999, W. Meier et al. 5522 ( UC!). Mérida: Tovar, La Llorona, on road to Amparo, 08º22’N, 72º45’W, 800 m, 27 July 1983, H. van der Werff & R. E. Ortiz 5772 & 5773 ( UC!, MO!). Yaracuy: Nirgua/San Felipe, Cordillera de la Costa, Serranía Santa María, Cerro La Chapa , 10º12’N, 68º35’W, 1250–1300 m, 9 September 2001, W. Meier et al. 8693 ( UC!) ; Nirgua / San Felipe, Cordillera de la Costa , Macizo de Nirgua , montaña El Zapatero, part of refuge Nirgua , road N of Alegria, 10º14’N, 68º37’30”W, 1000–1150 m, 29 December 2003, W. Meier & O. Escorcha 9798 ( UC!) .

Remarks: —The type material of Cyathea pauciflora lacks petioles, thus petiolar characters were taken from additional specimens. The range of Cyathea pauciflora overlaps with those of C. schlimii and C. lockwoodiana . The three species are similarly hairy on the laminae (e.g., hairs are present between the veins) but C. pauciflora differs in having relatively short hairs (to 1 mm vs. to 2 mm long in C. schlimii and C. lockwoodiana ) and short paraphyses that are not contorted over the sorus (0.4–0.5 mm vs. to 2 mm long). Cyathea pauciflora differs in its habit in having straight, balding trunks and predominantly opposite pinnae (vs. trunks often curved, decument and covered in old petiole bases, pinnae mostly alternate in C. schlimii and C. lockwoodiana ).

“ Cyathea pauciflora Kunze ” (1846: 101) and “ Alsophila pauciflora Presl ” (1847: 35) are earlier nomina nuda.