Anthurium chucantiense O.Ortiz, Croat & Baldini, 2016

Ortiz, Orlando O., Baldini, Riccardo M., Berguido, Guido & Croat, Thomas B., 2016, New species of Anthurium (Araceae) from Chucantí Nature Reserve, eastern Panama, Phytotaxa 255 (1), pp. 47-56 : 51-54

Anthurium chucantiense O.Ortiz, Croat & Baldini , sp. nov. ( Figs. 4 , 5 )

Anthurium chucantiense is characterized by its epiphytic habit, short stems (ca. 10 cm long), short internodes at apex of stem, brown cataphylls persisting as fibers at younger nodes only, terete petioles, narrowly oblong-elliptic brownish-drying long-acuminate blades with moderately obscure primary lateral veins, long-pedunculate inflorescences with green spreading-reflexed recurled spathes, a matte greenish to pale orange stipitate spadix and red-orange berries.

Type:— PANAMÁ. Darién: Serranía de Majé, Reserva Privada Chucantí, Cerro Chucantí , sendero hacia los helicópteros, 1325 m, 8°47’45’’ N, 78°27’47’’ W, 29 Aug 2014, Orlando O. Ortiz, Rodolfo Flores, Adriel Sierra, Juvenal Batista, Yessenia Guadalupe, Calixto Rodríguez, Zabdy Samudio & Zuleika Serracín 2448 (holotype, PMA!; isotypes, FT!, MO!, SCZ!, UCH!) .

Epiphytic herb; stems to 10 cm long; internodes short at the apex of the stem, longer on lower stem, 1–1.5 cm long, 5–10 mm diam.; cataphylls persisting intact at apex, later deciduous with a few remnant fibers at nodes, dark brown, 12.0–17.0 cm long; petioles terete, 8.0–23.0 cm long, 2–3 mm diam., drying semi-glossy, reddish-brown; blades narrowly oblong-elliptic, 24.5–45.5 × 3.5–8 cm, 5.5–7.4 times longer than broad, 2–3 times longer than petioles, narrowly long-acuminate at apex, attenuate at base, medium-dark green and semiglossy above, moderately paler and matte below, drying dark brown above, moderately paler and yellow-brown below; midrib prominently raised, narrowly rounded and slightly paler above, V-shaped and paler below, drying concolorous above, reddish-brown below; primary lateral veins up to 15 pairs, arising at 55–75° angle, obscure and weakly etched above, weakly raised below, concolorous on both surfaces, drying weakly raised and slightly darker below; collective veins arising from one of the lowermost primary lateral veins. Inflorescence erect; peduncle terete, 26.5–54 cm long, 2.0 mm diam.; spathe green, medium green, decurrent into peduncle 0.2–2.0 cm, linear-lanceolate, 3.0–8.0 × 1.0– 1.9 cm, spreading-reflexed and recurled, abruptly acuminate at apex; spadix erect, cylindrical, 5.7–12.5 cm long, 2.0–4.0 mm in diam., yellowish green and matte when stamens begin to emerge, becoming pale orange lower down, stipitate; stipe green, 2–19 mm long, 1–2 mm in diam. when dried; flowers 4 visible in the principal spiral, 3–6 in the alternate spiral; stamens slightly exserted, filaments translucent; anthers yellowish. Infructescence pendent, spathe green with reddish margins, spadix 8.5 cm long, 1.3 cm diam., ca. 6.5 times longer than wide, tepals brick-red; berries narrowly ovoid, orange-red, ca. 1 cm long when fresh, 0.7–0.9 cm long when dried, bluntly pointed at apex; seeds 2.

Eponymy:— Anthurium chucantiense is named for the type locality on Cerro Chucantí in the Serranía de Majé of Darién Province in Panama.

Distribution:— Anthurium chucantiense is endemic to Panama, known only from the type locality in the Serranía de Majé.

Habitat and Ecology:— The species grows between 963–1325 m in a Premontane rain forest and Tropical wet forest life zones according to the classification of zones proposed by Holdridge et al. (1971). This species usually grows near the forest floor, 0.2–3 m high, in association with Symbolanthus pulcherrimus Gilg (1896: 344) , Hieronyma oblonga ( Tulasne 1851: 248) Müller Argoviensis (1865: 66) , Calathea spiralis H. Kennedy (1978: 350) , Juanulloa wardiana ( D’Arcy 1973: 671) S. Knapp (1995: 283) and other Aroid species such: Anthurium tacarcunense and Stenospermation multiovulatum ( Engler 1885: 281) N.E. Brown (1894: 684) .

Phenology:— The specimens examined are all flowering and fruiting in August and September. Further investigations are required to determine exact flowering and fruiting time.

Conservation status:— The habitat where A. chucantiense grows is strongly impacted by human activities (farming). This species is restricted to a very small geographic area and for these reasons we consider it in the CR B2ab(iii) category according to the IUCN Red List Criteria (IUCN 2001).

Additional specimens examined(paratypes):— PANAMÁ. Darién:Cerro Chucantí, sendero al filo(helicópteros), bosque premontano, 963 m, 8°47’25.4’’ N, 78°27’23.7’’ W, 18 Sept 2012, Ibáñez, Ayala, Celis & Peris 8335 AI (MO, PMA).

Discussion:— Anthurium chucantiense had been tentatively placed in section Polyneurium Engler (1898: 384) . Within section Polyneurium , A. chucantiense could be confused with A. testaceum Croat & R.A. Baker (1979: 92) and A. cerropirrense Croat (1986: 47) , all of which have similar blades shape. Anthurium testaceum differs in having longer stems, leaf blades with conspicuous primary lateral veins on upper surfaces, midrib quadrangular in crosssection on lower surfaces, violet-purple spadix at anthesis and infructescences with violet tepals and oblong-ellipsoid, bright red berries ( Table 2); A. cerropirrense Croat differs in having leaf blades with conspicuous and sunken primary lateral veins on upper surfaces, spadix with 7–10 flowers visible in the alternate spiral and purple berries ( Table 2).

In the Lucid Anthurium key A. chucantiense tracks to A. carinatum Engler (1885: 275) , A. lygrum Croat & D.C. Bay (in Croat et al. 2006: 40), A. macphersonii Croat & Oberle (2004: 77) and A. reticulatum Bentham (1846: 255) . However, A. carinatum differs from A. chucantiense in having C to D-shaped petioles and purplish to maroon or reddish spadix; A. lygrum differs from A. chucantiense in having shorter cataphylls (6–7.5 cm), sulcate and ribbed petioles and winged peduncles; A. macphersonii differs from A. chucantiense in having D-shaped petioles, ovatelanceolate blades with a truncate base and A. reticulatum differs from A. chucantiense in having sulcate petioles, yellowish to olive-green or grayish drying leaf blades and midrib drying yellowish or grayish below.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Anthurium chucantiense. Holotype specimen: Panamá. Darién: Serranía de Majé, Reserva Privada Chucantí, Cerro Chucantí. Sendero hacia los helicópteros, 1325 m, 8°47’45’’ N, 78°27’47’’ W, 29 Aug 2014, Orlando O. Ortiz, Rodolfo Flores, Adriel Sierra, Juvenal Batista, Yessenia Guadalupe, Calixto Rodríguez, Zabdy Samudio & Zuleika Serracín 2448 (Photo PMA Herbarium).

FIGURE 5. Anthurium chucantiense at the type locality. A. In its habitat. B. Flowering spadix. C. Infrutescence spadix (Photo Orlando O. Ortiz).