taxonID	type	description	language	source
B7C40E4A06465C9795AF9DF1B6BD342C.taxon	description	Figs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5	en	Guevara-Andino, Juan Ernesto, White, Dawson M., Pitman, Nigel C. A., Cerón, Juan-Carlos, Fernández, Andrea, Navas-Muñoz, Daniel, Alverson, William S. (2025): Phragmotheca centinelensis (Malvaceae, Malvoideae or Matisioideae), a newly-discovered, critically-endangered canopy tree species from a cloud forest in Pacific Ecuador. PhytoKeys 254: 41-59, DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.254.143106
B7C40E4A06465C9795AF9DF1B6BD342C.taxon	diagnosis	Diagnosis. The new species is morphologically similar to Phragmotheca hydra Fern. Alonso, but differs by its orbicular to oblong-elliptic (vs. orbicular-cordate) leaves with a mixture of long-branched fasciculate hairs and lepidote-stellate scales in the axils of the mid-vein and secondary veins on the abaxial leaf surface (vs. fasciculate hairs only); larger flowers (3.5 – 5.0 [including the pedicel] × 2.9 – 3.5 vs. 2.8 – 2.9 × 2.8 – 3.0 cm) with glabrous, concave-spoon-like (vs. linear spathulate) petals; longer, glabrous staminal column (2.9 – 3.6 vs. 1.7 cm and densely covered by stellate hairs); staminal lobes each bearing 6 thecae (vs. 3 – 4 thecae); glabrous (vs. sparsely covered with long-branched, fasciculate hairs) style; subcapitate (vs. subacute) stigma; narrower, patelliform fruiting calyx (3.3 – 3.9 vs. 4 – 4.5 cm in diameter); and ovoid (vs. globose) fruits that are proportionately more slender (5.0 – 7.0 × 4.0 – 5.3 vs. 5.2 × 6.0 – 6.2 cm in diameter). The semi-cordate leaf bases of this new species resemble those of Phragmotheca lemniscata Fern. Alonso, but P. centinelensis differs by its larger size (canopy trees to 35 m vs. small treelets); indument of abaxial leaf surfaces (sparse fasciculate hairs, lepidote-stellate scales and stellate-fasciculate hairs vs. dense lepidote scales); floral calyces (narrowly campanulate vs. tubular-fusiform); petals (orange or pink, glabrous, glossy, distally concave, non-reflexed, with slightly convolute margins vs. white-cream, linear-spathulate, distally reflexed, internally covered by a mixture of stellate and lepidote scales); shorter staminal column (2.9 – 3.6 vs. 7.0 – 7.2 cm long, including the apical lobes) with apical lobes differing in indument (densely covered by septate simple hairs vs. glabrous); fruiting calyces (patelliform and covered by lenticels vs. discoid sub-cupular); and fruits (broadly ovoid vs. globose).	en	Guevara-Andino, Juan Ernesto, White, Dawson M., Pitman, Nigel C. A., Cerón, Juan-Carlos, Fernández, Andrea, Navas-Muñoz, Daniel, Alverson, William S. (2025): Phragmotheca centinelensis (Malvaceae, Malvoideae or Matisioideae), a newly-discovered, critically-endangered canopy tree species from a cloud forest in Pacific Ecuador. PhytoKeys 254: 41-59, DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.254.143106
B7C40E4A06465C9795AF9DF1B6BD342C.taxon	description	Description. Canopy trees to 25 – 35 m tall; trunk cylindrical, longitudinally fissured and forming thin plates, buttressed to 7 m height (Fig. 2 A), outer bark reddish with dispersed, irregular grey spots (Fig. 2 B), internal bark fibrous (outer half reddish-brown, inner half yellow-cream; Fig. 2 C); branches: main branches off trunk verticillate, smaller branches glabrous, terete, longitudinally fissured, with granular lenticels. Stipules 2 – 3 mm long, broadly triangular, caducous. Leaves alternate, clustered at the tips of the branchlets; petioles 3.6 – 12.2 cm long, 1 – 3.5 mm in diameter, terete, finely striate, densely pubescent, pulvinate at both ends. Leaf blades (Fig. 3 A, B) glaucous when young, pale green abaxially when mature, coriaceous, entire, orbicular to oblong-elliptic, (6 –) 6.7 – 31.1 (32) × (5 –) 7.6 – 29.3 (– 30) cm, semi-cordate to deeply cordate at base with slightly asymmetric lobes 0.5 – 4.3 cm depth, the apex obtuse to shortly apiculate; the abaxial surface densely covered by a mixture of lepidote-stellate scales, stellate-fasciculate trichome and fasciculate trichomes; venation conspicuous on the abaxial surface; primary veins palmate near leaf base (Fig. 3 D) with 5 basal nerves, 3 – 4 submarginal nerves slightly ascending to the leaf margin and with 5 pairs of secondary veins arising from mid-rib in distal 2 / 3 of blade, these with barbate tufts of fasciculate trichomes and sessile lepidote-stellate scales in their axils (Fig. 3 G); tertiary venation also prominent on the abaxial surface (Fig. 3 E), forming a conspicuous reticulum (inconspicuous on the adaxial surface), with golden lepidote-stellate scales on the lamina between nerves (Fig. 3 F). Flowers slightly zygomorphic, solitary (Fig. 4 A, B), borne opposite to leaves on short branches (brachyblasts), 3.3 – 5.2 cm long (including the pedicels), the pedicels 1.2 – 1.4 cm long, 0.3 – 0.4 cm in diameter, finely striate, covered with sessile stellate-lepidote scales and fasciculate hairs; floral bracts absent below the calyx. Calyx narrowly campanulate (Fig. 4 C), 2.3 – 3.3 × 0.9 – 1.2 cm, densely covered by a brownish, floccose indument (imparting a granular appearance), broadly acuminate and 4 - lobed at summit, internally covered with adpressed sericeous hairs. Petals spathulate, distinctly bilobed at apex, strongly concave distally (Fig. 4 B, D), the apex obtuse or rounded, the margins slightly convolute, 3.5 – 4.1 × 1.5 – 2.0 cm, orange or pink, glabrous, glossy, 2 – 4 inner corolla lobes covering the staminal tube and non-reflexed corolla tube lobes. Staminal column 2.9 – 3.6 cm long, the tube (16.5 –) 16.8 – 20.6 (– 21.0) × 0.4 – 0.6 mm long, orange, with 5 linear terminal lobes (Fig. 4 G), each lobe 12.9 – 15.8 × 2.5 – 2.8 mm, orange or pink and bearing 6 thecae in two parallel lines on the adaxial surface, these surrounded by long, unbranched, septate hairs (Fig. 4 G – I), with 14 – 16 foveae per theca. Ovary elongate, 1.5 – 1.7 mm long, 5 - carpellate, glabrous, the style not exceeding staminal filaments in length, longitudinally 6 - sulcate, the stigma capitate, spongy, glandular. Fruiting pedicel short, terete, 7.3 – 8.9 × 5.8 – 6.1 mm. Fruiting calyx patelliform and slightly dentate (Fig. 5 A, B), surrounding only the basal 1 / 5 of the fruit and beset with cream-coloured lenticels. Fruit ovoid to broadly ovoid, 5.9 – 7 × 4 – 5.3 cm, the exocarp pale, smooth, finely fissured longitudinally (Fig. 5 C) cream-coloured, sparsely granular with short, fasciculate hairs; the mesocarp fibrous-pulpy, white or cream-coloured and exuding yellowish mucilage (Fig. 5 D, E), the endocarp densely fibrous, forming a woody pyrene with each of the five seeds (Fig. 5 F). Mature seeds elliptic, 4 – 4.8 × 1.7 – 2 cm.	en	Guevara-Andino, Juan Ernesto, White, Dawson M., Pitman, Nigel C. A., Cerón, Juan-Carlos, Fernández, Andrea, Navas-Muñoz, Daniel, Alverson, William S. (2025): Phragmotheca centinelensis (Malvaceae, Malvoideae or Matisioideae), a newly-discovered, critically-endangered canopy tree species from a cloud forest in Pacific Ecuador. PhytoKeys 254: 41-59, DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.254.143106
B7C40E4A06465C9795AF9DF1B6BD342C.taxon	distribution	Distribution. Phragmotheca centinelensis is a large tree of non-flooded habitats in the Chocó cloud forests of Ecuador occupying a narrow altitudinal band between 600 and 1000 m elevation. It occupies mostly highly dissected terrain in the ridges of the Centinela area (Figs 6, 7). According to our tree species inventory, P. centinelensis appears to be relatively rare in the region and possibly endemic to the Ecuadorian Chocó; the only two known populations are in cloud forest remnants in the western Andean foothills of Centinela. Although we know of no record of P. centinelensis from Colombia, it may occur in similar habitats of the adjacent Chocó Department. Despite its rarity, distinctive features make it conspicuous in the field, notably the large buttresses up to 7 m height, its reddish outer bark and the longitudinal fissures on the trunk.	en	Guevara-Andino, Juan Ernesto, White, Dawson M., Pitman, Nigel C. A., Cerón, Juan-Carlos, Fernández, Andrea, Navas-Muñoz, Daniel, Alverson, William S. (2025): Phragmotheca centinelensis (Malvaceae, Malvoideae or Matisioideae), a newly-discovered, critically-endangered canopy tree species from a cloud forest in Pacific Ecuador. PhytoKeys 254: 41-59, DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.254.143106
B7C40E4A06465C9795AF9DF1B6BD342C.taxon	etymology	Etymology. We named the new species in honour of the iconic site that the renowned botanists Alwyn Gentry and Calaway Dodson visited more than 40 years ago in the Centinela area, close to Santo Domingo de los Colorados in the western foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes. At the time they visited an area known as Centinela del Pichincha, they observed a severely fragmented landscape, which led them to conclude that ongoing deforestation had wiped out almost all the remaining forests in the region. After the publication of their seminal paper (Dodson and Gentry 1991), the term “ Centinelan extinction ” was coined and popularised by Wilson (1992). The term aimed to reflect the global extinction of a high number of endemic plant species, many of them undescribed, following high levels of forest fragmentation.	en	Guevara-Andino, Juan Ernesto, White, Dawson M., Pitman, Nigel C. A., Cerón, Juan-Carlos, Fernández, Andrea, Navas-Muñoz, Daniel, Alverson, William S. (2025): Phragmotheca centinelensis (Malvaceae, Malvoideae or Matisioideae), a newly-discovered, critically-endangered canopy tree species from a cloud forest in Pacific Ecuador. PhytoKeys 254: 41-59, DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.254.143106
