Lycianthes gongylodes J.L.Gentry, Phytologia 26: 274. 1973

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

18 Lycianthes gongylodes J.L.Gentry, Phytologia 26: 274. 1973 Fig. 42

Type.

Guatemala. Huehuetenango: Mpio. San Mateo Ixtatán, 4 miles east of San Mateo Ixtatán on road to Barillas, 8500 ft, 7 Feb 1965, D. Breedlove 8771 (holotype: F [0072910F, acc. # 1624724]; isotype: CAS [0003289]).

Description.

Herb to shrub, erect, 1.5-3.5 m tall. Indument of pale yellow to light brown, uniseriate, multicellular, usually simple (sometimes dendritic), curling to crisped, eglandular, spreading to appressed trichomes 0.1-0.75 (1) mm long. Stems green when young, sparsely to moderately pubescent, compressed upon drying in a plant press, woody with age; upper sympodial branching points monochasial or dichasial. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 7-17.5 × 3.5-6.5 cm, the smaller ones with blades 3.5-10 × 2-4 cm, the leaf pairs usually similar in shape, the blades ovate to elliptic, membranaceous, sparsely pubescent, especially along the veins, the base cuneate to attenuate, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually undulate, the apex acute to acuminate, the petiole 0.5-2.5 cm long, sometimes absent, the larger leaf blades with 5-6 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary or in groups of 2-5, axillary, erect or oriented horizontally; peduncles absent; pedicels 10-15 mm and erect to arching in flower, to 30 mm long and erect to arching in fruit; calyx 2-3 mm long, 3.5-4.5 mm in diameter, widely bowl shaped, glabrous to sparsely pubescent, the margin truncate, undulate, very well developed, with 10 very short, reflexed appendages 0.25-0.5 mm long emerging 1-1.5 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, widely bowl-shaped, sometimes appearing flat-bottomed, 1.5-3 mm long, 6-9 mm in diameter, the appendages not changing in length; corolla 0.6-1 cm long, rotate to reflexed in orientation, shallowly to deeply stellate in outline, sometimes divided to below the middle, interpetalar tissue present, white adaxially, glabrous, white abaxially, sparsely pubescent with very short trichomes; stamens equal, the filaments ca. 1 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 4-5 mm long, lanceolate, free of one another, pale yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores round, dehiscing distally; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style ca. 7 mm, linear, straight, glabrous, the stigma capitate, decurrent down two sides. Fruit a berry, 7-10 mm long, 7-9 mm in diameter, globose, orange at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 20-60 per fruit, 2-2.5 mm × 1.5-2 mm, flattened, depressed ovate to oval in outline, with shallow notch on one side, yellow-orange, the surface reticulum with minute serpentine pattern with shallow luminae.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Guatemala (Huehuetenango, Quiché), in cloud forest, 2400-3000 m in elevation (Fig. 43 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

Flowering specimens and specimens with mature fruits have been collected in February and from June to August. All flowering specimens of this species have open flowers indicating that the flowers are probably open for most of the day.

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes gongylodes is a rarely collected species of Guatemala, represented by only four collections, all made before 1970, and none from protected areas. The EOO is 43.078 km2, and the AOO is 12 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Critically Endangered (CR).

Discussion.

Lycianthes gongylodes is known from only four collections made by Breedlove, Proctor, and Steyermark. The species is most likely allied to L. heteroclita , with which it shares green herbaceous stems that collapse upon drying. The form of the calyx in the two species is similar, although L. gongylodes differs in having small calyx appendages which make the calyx appear thicker and more bowl-shaped in flower and flat-bottomed in fruit (a feature it shares with L. connata ). Lycianthes heteroclita usually lacks appendages on the calyx, which looks campanulate in flower and bowl-shaped to plate-like in fruit and, unlike L. gongylodes , it usually lacks obvious interpetalar tissue connecting the lobes of the corolla. The curly trichomes that are present on the stems and leaves of L. gongylodes are quite distinctive and different than the very small trichomes present in L. heteroclita ; in addition, L. gongylodes lacks the tiny groups of white trichomes that appear like small granules on the calyx of L. heteroclita . Lycianthes gongylodes could be confused with L. ceratocalycia , another allied species that occurs in the same region of Guatemala and adjacent Mexico. Lycianthes ceratocalycia differs in having purple, stellate corollas with sparse interpetalar tissue and scurfy horizontal lines on the young branches. A sterile specimen of L. gongylodes could be misidentified as L. tricolor (Dunal) Bitter, something that was done in Dean et al. (2017a), where Steyermark 49839 (a paratype of L. gongylodes ) is cited under L. tricolor .

Representative specimens examined.

Guatemala. Huehuetenango: Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, near the place called Kurus Lemun, 4 miles E of San Mateo Ixtatán along road to Barillas, [15.82, -91.4264], 8500 ft, 7 Aug 1965, D. Breedlove 11628 (TEX). Quiché: El Boquerón, 8000-8200 ft, 6 Aug 1964, G.R. Proctor 25432 (BRIT, MO, TEX).

Figures

Figure 42. Image of herbarium specimen of L. gongylodes, Proctor 25432 (LL). Specimen used with permission from the Lundell Herbarium, University of Texas at Austin.

Figure 43. Map of geographic distribution of L. gongylodes based on herbarium specimen data.