Capsicum campylopodium Sendtn., Fl. Bras. (Martius) 10: 144. 1846.

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

6. Capsicum campylopodium Sendtn., Fl. Bras. (Martius) 10: 144. 1846.

Figs 37 , 38

Capsicum gracilipes Dunal, Prodr. [A. P. de Candolle] 13(1): 418. 1852. Type. [Brazil]. Rio de Janeiro, 1834, C. Gaudichaud 513 (lectotype, designated here: G-DC [G00131901]; isolectotypes: F [F neg. F0BN002869], MPU [MPU013436 fragment], P [P00410015, P00410016]).

Capsicum salicifolium Dunal, Prodr. [A. P. de Candolle] 13(1): 418. 1852. Type. Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: "In provinciã Rio de Janeiro, Serra dos Órgãos”, Oct. 1833, A.-C. Vauthier 528 (lectotype, designated here: G-DC [G00131881]; isolectotypes: CORD [CORD00006953], F [F neg. 6846 ex G-DC + F0093724F fragment, acc. # 644821], GH [GH00077007], MPU [MPU023040 fragment], P [P00410013, P00410014]).

Type.

Brazil. “Brasilia”, [no date], F. Sellow 6 (lectotype, designated by Barboza 2011, pg. 29: P [P00410022]; isolectotypes: B [destroyed, F neg. 2865], CORD [CORD00006952, fragment of lectotype], K [K000585891 right plant], F [v0076865F, acc. # 648993, fragment of holotype], LE [LE 01072483]) .

Description.

Erect subshrubs or shrubs, 0.5-2 m tall, with the main stem thick, up to 2.5 cm in diameter at base, much branched above, the branches dichotomously spreading in a typical “zig-zag” appearance. Young stems striate, fragile, green, glabrous to glabrescent, with antrorse, curved, simple, uniseriate, 3-4-celled eglandular trichomes 0.3-0.5 mm long; nodes solid, green; bark of older stems dark brown, glabrous; lenticels few, light brown. Sympodial units difoliate, the leaves geminate; leaf pair unequal in size, similar in shape. Leaves membranous, slightly discolorous, green or dark green above, light green beneath, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with appressed-antrorse, 3-5-celled, eglandular trichomes 0.2-0.4 mm long on both surfaces; blades of major leaves 4-11.5 (-20) cm long, 1.5-2.4 (-8.5) cm wide, elliptic to ovate, the major veins 5-7 on each side of mid-vein, the base attenuate and unequal, the margins entire, the apex acuminate to long-acuminate; petioles 0.5-1.7 cm, glabrescent or glabrous; blades of minor leaves 1.7-3.5 (-4.5) cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, elliptic to ovate, the major veins 3-4 on each side of mid-vein, the base attenuate, the margins entire, the apex acute; petioles 0-0.5 cm, glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, 2-5 (-7) flowers per axil, rarely flowers solitary; flowering pedicels 9-14 mm, very thin, delicate, terete to slightly striate, erect to slightly spreading, geniculate at anthesis, entirely green or reddish basally, glabrescent, the eglandular trichomes short, antrorse; pedicels scars inconspicuous. Buds ovoid, cream or with greenish-yellow spots. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx (1-) 1.2-1.6 mm long, 1.4-1.5 mm wide, hemispherical, circular in outline, very thin, green, glabrous or rarely glabrescent, without appendages. Corolla 4.5-6.5 (-8) mm long, (6-) 6.4-7.5 (-11) mm in diameter, mostly cream outside, white or cream with two large golden yellow or ochraceous spots on each lobe and part of the limb and cream or white centre within, stellate with narrow interpetalar membrane, lobed more than 1/3 to nearly halfway to the base, pubescent adaxially with a continuous ring of glandular trichomes (stalk long, 2-3-celled; head globose, peltate, unicellular) in the throat and base of the lobes, glabrous abaxially, the tube 2-4 mm long, the lobes 1.8-3.5 (-4.3) mm long, 2-4 mm wide, triangular or broadly triangular, spreading, the margins finely ciliate, the tips acute, cucullate, papillate. Stamens five, unequal in length; three filaments short 1.5-2.3 mm long, the two longer 1.9-3 mm long, white or cream, inserted on the corolla 0.6-1 mm from the base, with auricles fused to the corolla at the point of insertion; anthers 0.8-1.7 mm, ellipsoid, yellow, not connivent at anthesis. Gynoecium with ovary 0.7-1 mm long, 0.9-1.3 mm in diameter, light green, ovoid; ovules two per locule; nectary ca. 2.2 mm tall; styles homomorphic, 2.3-4 mm, somewhat exserted beyond the anthers, cream, clavate, slightly curved; stigma 0.1-0.2 mm long, 0.4 mm wide, discoid, pale green. Berry 3-5 mm long, 5-7 mm in diameter, globose-depressed, green when immature, greenish-golden yellow at maturity, deciduous, pungent, the pericarp thin, translucent, with giant cells (endocarp alveolate); stone cells absent; fruiting pedicels 14-25 mm, pendent, angled, slightly widened distally, green; fruiting calyx 3-4.5 mm in diameter, persistent, not accrescent, discoid, green. Seeds 4 (-6) per fruit, 3.7-3.9 (-4) mm long, 3-3.3 mm wide, C-shaped or reniform, brownish-black, the seed coat smooth or faintly reticulate and tuberculate at margins (SM), reticulate-cerebelloid with pillar-like outgrowths at margins (SEM), the cells rectangular or polygonal at margin and irregular in seed body, the lateral walls straight to wavy at margins and sinuate in the central zone; embryo imbricate.

Distribution.

Capsicum campylopodium is an endemic species from south-eastern Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo States, Fig. 32 ).

Ecology.

Capsicum campylopodium is a typical component of the coastal Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica) and of some remnants of interior forests of the same biome. It is found in small colonies of a few individuals in shady or semi-shady places, sometimes also in sun, along roadsides or trails of the Ombrophilous Forest (Floresta Ombrófila Densa Submontana and Montana), between 100 and 1,200 m elevation.

Phenology.

Flowering from late September to March; fruiting from December to April.

Chromosome number.

n = 13 ( Pozzobon and Schifino-Wittmann 2006), 2 n = 2x = 26 ( Moscone et al. 2003, 2007; Pozzobon et al. 2006).

Common names.

Brazil. Pimenta da Serra (Rio de Janeiro, Kuhlmann 6288).

Uses.

None recorded.

Preliminary conservation assessment.

EOO (58,586.312 km2); AOO (212 km2). Capsicum campylopodium is a relatively widespread species that occurs in many formally protected areas, such as Parque Nacional da Tijuca, Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca, Estação Ecologica Estadual de Paraiso, Reserva Ecologica de Rio das Pedras, Parque Municipal Ecológico da Prainha, Estação Biológica Caratinga, amongst others (see Suppl. material 4: Appendix 4). Based on the extent of occurrence and the number of localities (ca. 50), we assign a category of Least Concern (LC). However, most collections are from a much-visited place in Rio de Janeiro (Parque Nacional da Tijuca) and from Serra dos Órgãos, with a serious problem of forest fragmentation in some areas ( Freitas et al. 2006; Nehren et al. 2009) which may represent a threat to this species.

Discussion.

Capsicum campylopodium belongs to the Atlantic Forest clade ( Carrizo García et al. 2016). It is characterised by its small flowers, hemispherical calyx with a circular outline, white corolla with golden yellow or ochraceous spots, locules with only two ovules and depressed fruits with not more than four seeds (Fig. 38 ). In herbarium material, the morphology of the fruits is not always preserved. However, in living material, the number of seeds per locule (2), the size of the seeds (large in proportion to the size of the fruit) and the arrangement of the seeds (parallel, but not touching) results in a slightly depressed fruit, rather than spherical (Figs 37I, J , 38C ), which is a more common fruit shape in other species.

Capsicum flexuosum , C. schottianum and C. campylopodium all lack calyx appendages and are sometimes extremely difficult to distinguish from one another due to some characters being poorly preserved in herbarium specimens. Capsicum campylopodium and C. schottianum both have clearly geniculate pedicels, a calyx with five evident nerves and greenish-golden yellow fruits with brownish-black to black seeds. The distinction of C. campylopodium from C. schottianum is based on calyx shape and size (hemispherical and ≤ 1.5 mm in diameter vs. cup-shaped and> 2 mm in diameter in C. schottianum ), corolla colour (mostly white with large golden yellow spots within vs. white usually with purple and greenish-yellow spots within), fruit shape (globose-depressed vs. globose or subglobose) and number of seeds (four, very rarely six vs. ≥ six). The separation of C. flexuosum , the most distinctive species of the three, is based primarily on its lack of geniculate pedicels and its having a calyx with ten evident nerves, white corolla with yellowish-green spots within and red fruits (Fig. 63 ).

Dunal (1852) described C. gracilipes , based on three Gaudichaud specimens citing "v.s. in h. DC et h. Mus . Paris"; these are now housed at G-DC (G00131901) and P (P00410015, P00410016). All three collections are fruiting specimens, the one at G-DC (G00131901) is the best-preserved and here is designated lectotype.

For C. salicifolium , Dunal (1852) mentioned in the protologue the Vauthier 528 collection he saw in G-DC and P. We found these specimens and other duplicates. We select the best-preserved specimen (G00131881) as the lectotype.

Specimens examined.

See Suppl. material 4: Appendix 4.

Figures

Figure 32. Distribution of C. benoistii, C. caatingae, C. caballeroi, C. campylopodium and C. cardenasii

Figure 37. Capsicum campylopodium A flowering branch B eglandular trichome of the leaf C flower D calyx E section of the calyx showing the venation F flower, upper view G sector of opened corolla H gynoecium I fruit J fruit, upper view K fruit, in cross section L anatomical detail of the pericarp (note the giant cell in the mesocarp) M seed N seed, in cross section O structure of seed coat at the seed margin P structure of seed coat at the seed body Q embryo. From Hunziker 25116. Drawn by L. Sanchez. Published in Hunziker (2001), reproduced with permission.

Figure 38. Capsicum campylopodium A plant B flower C immature fruit D-F diagrams of different stages of fruit development D ovary, in cross section, showing the locules and the number of ovules E young fruit, in cross section (the lateral arrows indicate the fruit is flattened around the centre) F mature depressed fruit (one locule), in longitudinal section, showing the two seeds occupying the whole locule A from Barboza et al. 2057, photo by G. E. Barboza B, C from Bianchetti et al. 511, photos by L. Bianchetti.

Figure 63. Capsicum flexuosum A fruiting branch B flowering node C stellate corolla with greenish spots D, H mature fruits E plant F flower bud G rotate-stellate corolla with purple and greenish spots A-D from Barboza et al. 1034 E Barboza et al. 3631 F-H from Carrizo Garcia 84. Photos by C. Carrizo Garcia.