Rochefortia bahamensis Britton

Irimia, Ramona-Elena & Gottschling, Marc, 2016, Taxonomic revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales), Biodiversity Data Journal 4, pp. 7720-7720 : 7720

Rochefortia bahamensis Britton

Rochefortia bahamensis Rochefortia bahamensis Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 5: 317. 1907 Rochefortia cuneata subsp. bahamensis Revista Jard. Bot. Nac. Univ. Habana 3: 103. 1982N.L. Britton & C.F. Millspaugh 6167NY: 111152F-51163

Description

Shrubs or small trees up to 1.5-4.5 m tall, galls absent; twig indument puberulent, trichomes simple; bark greyish white to brown, longitudinally fissured, scaly, wood very brittle; thorns 0.3-0.8 cm long, slender, distally somewhat acute, simple, scattered, alternate, axillary or rarely terminal, sericeous. Leaves fasciculate, rarely alternate (Correll 45046: US!, Correll & Wasshausen 46731: US!); petiole 0.5-1.2 cm long, hirsute through pubescent or glabrous; blade 0.7-5.1 cm long, 0.5-2.8 cm wide, obovate, widely obovate or very widely obovate through orbicular (particularly distal immature leaves), coriaceous, primary vein prominent, sometimes with scattered trichomes, secondary veins 3-8, tertiary veins arcuate; base cuneate or rounded; apex rounded, emarginate, obcordate or retuse, rarely cleft; adaxial surface glabrescent, sometimes distally cilliate, bright, with dense cystolith-like structures in epidermal cells, abaxial surface glabrous, occasionally with simple, scattered trichomes, immature leaves sometimes barbellate. Inflorescence axillary, branching sympodial, branches relatively slender, hirsute, pedicels 0.05-0.30 cm long. Calyx 0.35-0.45 cm long, coriaceous, hirsute outside, glabrous inside, lobes 0.35-0.40 cm long, 0.40-0.43 cm wide, divided from the base, ovate to broadly ovate, apex acute, margin strigose, glabrous inside with a tuft of trichomes in upper part of lobes. Corolla 0.50-0.70 cm long, yellow or white-greenish, sometimes fragrant, membranaceous, glabrous on both surfaces, tube 0.20-0.25 cm long, funnel-shaped, lobes 0.50-0.60 cm long, oblong or obtuse, glabrous, rarely with trichomes at margin. Anthers of male flower 0.45-0.50 cm long, oblong, filaments 0.35-0.45 cm long, glabrous, adnate to corolla tube for 0.10-0.12 cm, pollen present, tricolporate; female flower unknown. Ovary of male flower subglobose, 0.15-0.18 cm long, stylodia 2, divided in distal part, branches 0.10-0.12 cm long, hirsute. Fruit 0.40-0.50 cm tall, 0.40-0.60 cm wide, globose, red at maturity; pyrene 0.37-0.40 cm tall, 0.26-0.30 cm wide, 0.12-0.20 cm deep, abaxial surface cutate.

Distribution

Across multiple islands of The Bahamas archipelago (Crooked Island, Great Exuma, Inagua, Long Island, Mayaguana, San Salvador) and putatively also in western Cuba (Pinar del Río, Havana) in scrub lands, rocky coppice hills and thicket edges, at sea level or slightly above (symbol "▲" in Fig. 3).

Ecology

Flowering Feb–Mar, Oct–Dec; fruiting Dec–Jan, Oct.

Taxon discussion

Rochefortia bahamensis is an abundant and morphologically very consistent species in The Bahamas archipelago characterised by the predominantly circular leaf shapes. Overall similarity, however, is great with R. barloventensis from the Lesser Antilles, but molecular data indicate that the two species are only distantly related ( Irimia et al. 2015). The geographical disjunction (> 500 km apart) provides further evidence for the distinctiveness of both species.

The 3 sterile collections from Cuba are tentatively placed under R. bahamensis and are morphologically somewhat intermediate between R. bahamensis and R. cubensis . With R. bahamensis , the plants share the more membranaceous leaf texture, longer and slenderer petioles, orbicular immature leaves and fewer (maximal 4) leaves clustering in a fascicle. However, they exhibit the dichotomously branched thorn pattern of R. cubensis , and overall leaf size is smaller when compared to the more typical R. bahamensis . Anyhow, molecular data of Hilger & Urquiola 99/20 (B!) indicate that this specimen is distinct from (morphologically also similar, but geographically distant) R. acanthophora and R. cuneata ( Irimia et al. 2015).

Notes

Representative specimens examined. - THE BAHAMAS. Crooked Islands: in coppice along stone wall in hills NE of Cabbage Hill, 22°46'N, 74°13'W [retroactively inferred], 22 Feb 1975 (♀ fl), Correll 44486 (US!); Exuma: on summit of rocky ridge W of Moss Town, beyond High School, 23°34'N, 75°52'W [retroactively inferred], 3 Oct 1980 (♂ fl), Correll & Popenoe 51418 (A! F! MO! US!), 3 Oct 1980 (fr), Correll 51419 (A! US! K! F! F! MO!); Inagua: coppice adjacent to air terminal, 20°59'N, 73°40'W [retroactively inferred], 20 Feb 1973 (sterile), Gillis & Proctor 11767 (A!); Mayaguana: by the path to Horse Pond, 22°20'N, 72°50'W [retroactively inferred], 28 Nov 1967 (fl), Byrne 429 (A!); San Salvador: edge of coppice along Queen's Highway, 24°62'N, 74°27'W [retroactively inferred], 21 Nov 1974 (♂ fl), Correll 43864 (F! F! GH! GH! MO!). - CUBA. Pinar del Río: Viñales, Mogote, 22°37'N, 83°43'W [retroactively inferred], 9 Mar 1999 (sterile), Hilger & Urquiola s.n. (B! M!); Havana: Marianao, 23°51'N, 82°30'W [retroactively inferred], 23 Oct 1921 (sterile), Ekman 13359 (G! K! US!).

Common names

unknown.