Lycianthes hintonii E.Dean, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 145: 407. 2004

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

22 Lycianthes hintonii E.Dean, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 145: 407. 2004 Fig. 50

Type.

Mexico. Nuevo León: Mpio. Aramberri, Cerro El Viejo, 1200 m, 28 Jul1993, Hinton et al. 22882 (holotype: DAV [DAV155244]; isotypes: CIIDIR [CIIDIR022490]; GBH [GBH022882]; TEX [00208091]).

Description.

Perennial herb from storage roots of unknown shape, usually erect, to ca. 0.5 m tall, dying back each season. Indument of white, uniseriate, multicellular, simple (rarely forked or dendritically branched), eglandular, spreading to appressed-retrorse trichomes 0.1-1 mm long. Stems green with darker green vertical markings, sparsely to moderately pubescent, somewhat compressed upon drying in a plant press, somewhat woody with age, especially at the base of the plant; first stem ca. 25 cm long to the first inflorescence, the internodes ca. 13; first two sympodial branching points dichasial, followed by monochasial branching. Leaves simple, those of the upper sympodia usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 8-15 × 5.5-6.5 cm, the smaller ones with blades 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the larger, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades deltoid, ovate, or elliptic, thin chartaceous, sparsely pubescent, the primary veins 4-5 on either side of the midvein, the base attenuate or decurrent onto the petiole, slightly oblique on smaller leaves, the margin entire, and usually irregularly undulate, the apex rounded, acute, or short-acuminate, the petioles poorly defined, 1-3 cm long, sometimes absent. Flowers solitary, axillary, oriented horizontally; peduncles absent; pedicels 40-70 mm and erect in flower, ca. 110 mm long (or longer) in fruit (material with mature fruits and fruiting pedicels not yet seen), sparsely pubescent with spreading to appressed trichomes; calyx 3-4 mm long, 4-5 mm in diameter, campanulate, sparsely pubescent, the margin truncate, with 10 linear, spreading to reflexed appendages 4-11 mm long emerging ca. 1 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx not yet seen; corolla 1-2.5 cm long (ca. 2-4 cm in diameter), rotate in orientation, mostly entire in outline (with shallow notches), with abundant interpetalar tissue, white, green near the major veins abaxially, glabrous; stamens unequal, straight, the filaments of three lengths, the two shortest filaments 1.5-3.5 mm long, the two medium filaments 2.5-4 mm long, the one long filament 3-6 mm long, the length of the long filament nearly always 1.2-1.5 times that of the medium filament, glabrous, the anthers 4.5-6 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, free of one another, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pollen grains tricolporate; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 8.5-11 mm long, linear, slightly curved, glabrous, the stigma capitate (sometimes weakly bilobed). Fruits and seeds not yet seen.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico (Nuevo León), in oak forests on limestone soils in the mountains in the vicinity of Cerro El Viejo, 1200-1500 m in elevation (Fig. 51 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

Flowering specimens have been collected July to August. Fruit not yet seen. The diurnal movements of the corolla have not been observed in the field; the corollas are probably open in the early morning and closed in the late morning. Unlike the other herbs of series Meizonodonatae , the scent of the pollen of this species is unknown.

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes hintonii is a rarely collected species of northern Mexico, represented by only two collections made before 1993, both from the same location (Cerro El Viejo, Nuevo León), which is not a protected area. Anguiano-Constante et al. (2018) provided a preliminary assessment of Critically Endangered (CR).

Discussion.

Although this species has not been observed in the field, it is obviously related to the species of series Meizonodontae and it is assumed that it has the characteristic tuberous roots. The fruit type is unknown and could be either green, like Lycianthes moziniana , or dark purple like L. ciliolata . This species is similar to L. rzedowskii in its white flowers, but it differs from that species in having fewer, larger leaves on the first stem to emerge from the ground, triangular, tricolporate pollen, and in growing in basic limestone soils. Its distribution is quite disjunct from the other populations of L. rzedowskii ( Dean 2004).

Representative specimen examined.

Mexico. Nuevo León: Mpio. Aramberri, Cerro El Viejo, [23.9885, -99.7612], 1495 m, 3 Aug 1993, Hinton 23263 (DAV, GBH, TEX, UC).

Figures

Figure 50. Image of herbarium specimen of L. hintonii, Hinton 23263 (DAV). Image used with permission of the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity.

Figure 51. Map of geographic distribution of L. hintonii based on herbarium specimen data.