Lycianthes breedlovei E.Dean, Phytotaxa 409: 265. 2019

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

7 Lycianthes breedlovei E.Dean, Phytotaxa 409: 265. 2019 Fig. 18

Type.

Mexico. Chiapas: Mpio. La Independencia, third ridge along logging road from Las Margaritas to Campo Alegre, [16.4756, -91.8234], 2300 m, 6 May 1973, D. Breedlove 34793 (holotype: CAS [480622]; isotypes: LL [00226970], MO [acc. # 2602916]).

Description.

Vine to scandent shrub, 2-3.5 (5) m tall (perhaps taller, if a vine). Indument of orange to pale yellow (yellow-grey), uniseriate, multicellular, stalked, multangulate-stellate, eglandular, spreading trichomes 0.25-1.5 (2) mm long, ca. 0.75 in diameter, the rays 3-5 per whorl, straight, often rebranched, sometimes several times. Stems pale green (drying tan) when young, moderately to densely pubescent, not compressed when dried in a plant press, becoming brown and woody with age; upper sympodial branching points a mixture of monochasial and dichasial, the branching divaricate, the branches diverging at wide angles. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually unpaired, if paired, then unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 3.5-10 × 1.5-4.5 cm, the smaller ones (usually not developing) with blades 1-3.5 × 0.5-2 cm, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate, elliptic, or obovate, chartaceous, sparsely to densely pubescent (denser on the abaxial side, especially along the veins), the base cuneate to rounded, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually irregularly undulate, the apex acute to acuminate, the petiole 0.3-1 cm long, the larger leaf blades with 4-6 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary or in groups of 2-5, axillary, oriented horizontally; peduncles absent; pedicels 9-16 mm long and erect in flower, 10-25 mm long and erect in fruit, densely pubescent; calyx 2.5-3.5 mm long, 3.5-4.5 mm in diameter, campanulate, pale green (sometimes nearly translucent) with dark ribs, sparsely to densely pubescent, the margin truncate, with 10 spreading linear appendages 1-3 mm long emerging ca. 0.5 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, widely bowl-shaped to rotate, 2-3 mm long, 6-8 mm in diameter, the appendages to 5 mm long; corolla 0.9-1.5 cm long, rotate in orientation, shallowly stellate in outline, divided ca. 1/2 of the way to the base, with abundant interpetalar tissue, white to lilac, adaxially with darker purple stripes on the lobes, sparsely pubescent with few scattered trichomes, abaxially usually densely puberulent on the lobes (best seen in bud); stamens slightly unequal, straight, the four short filaments 0.5-1 mm long, the one long filament 1-2 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 3-4 mm long, elliptic, free of one another, yellow, sometimes pubescent on the inner face along the connective, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 6-8 mm long, linear, straight to curved, glabrous, the stigma oblong, decurrent down two sides. Fruit a berry, 4-10 mm long, 5-11 mm in diameter, depressed globose, orange when mature, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 5-30 per fruit, 3-3.5 × 2-2.5 mm, flattened, thickened on the edges, reniform to depressed ovate in outline, usually with small notch on one side, orange, the surface reticulum with tight serpentine pattern and shallow luminae, the margin thickened and rougher in texture than the center.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico (Chiapas), in cloud forest, often in oak forest, sometimes associated with Pinus , Abies , Magnolia , or Podocarpus , sometimes near disturbed areas, such as milpas, 2000-3000 m in elevation (Fig. 19 ).

Common names and uses.

Mexico. Chiapas: chichol mut (Tzeltal) (C. Santíz R. 854); penko antivo (Tzotzil) (C. Santíz R. 904); tunatzak (Tzeltal) (A. Médez Ton 5054).

Phenology.

Flowering specimens have been collected from April through July; specimens with mature fruits have been collected from August to November. The timing of the diurnal movements of the corolla of this species is not known, but many specimens have been collected with open flowers indicating that the flowers are open for an extended period during the day.

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes breedlovei is restricted to cloud forest habitat in the state of Chiapas, represented by 18 collections, only one of which is from a protected area. This species was previously given a preliminary assessment by Dean et al. (2019a) of Endangered.

Discussion.

Lycianthes breedlovei is a shrub to vine with zigzag branching due to widely divaricate branching angles, yellow to orange branched pubescence, white flowers with violet markings, and unequal stamens. It is closely related to L. hortulana Standley & L.O.Williams, described from Honduras. The two species are geographically isolated from one another, with no populations of either species known to occur in Guatemala. They have diverged from one another in pedicel length ( L. hortulana flowers have pedicels 3-9 mm long vs 9-16 mm long), flower size ( L. hortulana has corollas that are 0.6-1 cm long vs 0.9-1.5 cm), corolla pubescence ( L. hortulana has very sparse pubescence on the abaxial side of the corolla lobes vs dense), and stamen length ( L. hortulana has equal stamens vs usually unequal) ( Dean et al. 2019a).

Representative specimen examined.

Mexico. Chiapas: Mpio. Tenejapa, along the road to the town of Matzam, ca. 1.5 km from the eastern outskirts of the town of Las Ollas where the road forks, about 2.6 km from the intersection with the San Cristóbal de las Casas-Tenejapa road, just west and upslope of the settlement of Paraje Cruz Tzibaltic, on ridge where there is an intersection with an undeveloped road, 16.7832, -92.5275, 2484 m, 13 Sep 2017, E. Dean 9531 (DAV226596).

Figures

Figure 18. Image of isotype of L. breedlovei, Breedlove 34793 (MO). Specimen used with permission from the Missouri Botanical Garden (http: // www. tropicos. org).

Figure 19. Map of geographic distribution of L. breedlovei based on herbarium specimen data.