Lycianthes kaernbachii (Lauterb. & K.Schum.) Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Vereins Bremen 24 [preprint]: 504. 1919, as "kaernbachii" .

Knapp, Sandra, 2022, A revision of Lycianthes (Solanaceae) in Australia, New Guinea, and the Pacific, PhytoKeys 209, pp. 1-134 : 1

8. Lycianthes kaernbachii (Lauterb. & K.Schum.) Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Vereins Bremen 24 [preprint]: 504. 1919, as "kaernbachii".

Figs 25 , 26

Solanum kaernbachii Lauterb. & K.Schum., Fl. Schutzgeb. Südsee [Schumann & Lauterbach] 535. 1900 [ “1901”], as “kaernbachii”. Type. Papua New Guinea. Morobe: "Kaiser Wilmhelmsland, Sattelberg, nach Selilo", 800 m, 10 Dec 1893, L. Kaernbach 77 (holotype: B [destroyed]). Papua New Guinea. Morobe: Sattelberg, 20 Dec 1935, M.S. Clemens 1289 (neotype, designated here: L [L.2881629]; isoneotypes: G [G00415794], L [L.2881630]).

Solanum schlechterianum Bitter, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 55: 111. 1917, as “Schlechterianum”. Type. Papua New Guinea. Madang: "Kaiser Wilhelmsland, Waldern am Djamu", ca. 700 m, 24 Feb 1908, F.R.R. Schlechter 17339 (holotype: B [B 10 0278656]; isotype: P [P00379697]).

Lycianthes schlechteriana (Bitter) Bitter, Abh. Naturwiss. Vereins Bremen 24 [preprint]: 504. 1919, as “Schlechteriana”. Type. Based on Solanum schlechterianum Bitter.

Type.

Based on Solanum kaernbachii Lauterb. & K.Schum.

Description.

Woody climber or large liana, size not recorded; stems terete, densely to moderately pubescent with simple uniseriate 3-7-celled weak-walled, trichomes to 1 mm long, these occasionally forked, drying golden tan; new growth densely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes like those of the stems, bright golden tan in dry material; bark of older stems brown, not markedly glabrescent on twigs. Sympodial units difoliate, the leaves geminate, the leaves of a pair different in size and shape. Leaves simple; blades of major leaves 9-21 cm long, 3.5-11 cm wide, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, widest in the middle, discolorous, coriaceous ( “greasy” fide Kairo & Streimann NGF-30943); adaxial surfaces shiny, glabrous to sparsely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes, these denser along the veins; abaxial surfaces moderately to densely and even pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes to 1 mm long, these 3-7-celled, weak-walled, drying golden tan, denser along the veins; principal veins 7-10 pairs, the midrib somewhat keeled, the veins impressed above; base acute to somewhat cordate-truncate, oblique; margins entire, slightly revolute; apex acute to abruptly acuminate; petioles 0.5-3 cm long, densely pubescent with simple uniseriate trichomes like those of the stems and leaves; blades of minor leaves 2.5-6.5 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, broadly elliptic to orbicular, texture and pubescence like that of the major leaves; base rounded or cordate; margins entire to slightly revolute; apex rounded or obtuse; petioles absent to 0.6 cm long, pubescence like thatof the major leaves. Inflorescences paired rows of cauliflorous pedicels along the stem between the nodes and in leaf axils with groups of more than 10 flowers, many flowers open simultaneously, pubescence like that of the stems; pedicels 0.8-1.1 cm long, ca. 0.5 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the apex, slender and spreading, purple or green, glabrous to sparsely to moderately pubescent with golden simple uniseriate trichomes to 0.25 mm long, these less dense than stem pubescence, articulated at the base; pedicel scars closely spaced in rows along the stems. Buds ellipsoid, the corolla more or less strongly exserted from the calyx tube before anthesis. Flowers 5-merous, heterostylous and unisexual, individual specimens with either short-styled or long-styled flowers, the plants probably dioecious. Calyx tube 2-2.5 mm long, 2.5-3 mm in diameter, urn-shaped, thick and woody in dry material (fleshy in live plants?), slightly tuberculate, with scattered to denser simple uniseriate trichomes like those of the pedicels, without appendages, the rim constricted and thickened. Corolla 0.8-0.9 cm in diameter, creamy white to reddish cream (fragrant fide Kairo & Streimann NGF-30943), stellate, lobed nearly to the base, interpetalar tissue absent, the lobes 3-4 mm long, 1.2-1.5 mm wide, spreading or reflexed, thick and fleshy (live plants), glabrous adaxially, minutely puberulent abaxially, the tips and margins densely papillate, the tips strongly cucullate. Stamens equal; filament tube minute; free portion of the filaments 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous; anthers 1.5-2 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, plumply ellipsoid, yellow, poricidal at the tips, the pores directed distally, not elongating to slits with age. Ovary globose to conical, glabrous, vestigial in short-styled flowers; style in short-styled flowers apparently absent, in long-styled flowers ca. 4.5 mm long, straight, glabrous; stigma strongly bifid, the lobes ca. 1 mm long, the surfaces minutely papillate. Fruit a globose berry, 0.5-0.6 cm in diameter, green, the pericarp glabrous, hard and somewhat woody in dried material, opaque; fruiting pedicels 0.9-1.1 cm long, ca. 1 mm in diameter at the base, ca. 2 mm in diameter at the apex, spreading, more or less woody, slightly tuberculate; fruiting calyx a cup around the basal third of the berry, woody in dry material (fleshy in live plants?), with a few simple uniseriate trichomes, somewhat tuberculate. Seeds 2-20 per berry, 3-3.5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, flattened reniform, without a deep notch, reddish tan, the surfaces deeply pitted, especially near the margins, the testal cells sinuate in outline. Stone cells absent. Chromosome number not known.

Distribution

(Fig. 27 ). Lycianthes kaernbachii is endemic to the island of New Guinea; it has only been collected in Papua New Guinea (Madang, Morobe) in the eastern Finisterre Range.

Ecology and habitat.

Lycianthes kaernbachii is a plant of primary lowland rainforest, between 30 and 700 m elevation.

Common names.

Papua New Guinea. nigukwaa (Schumann and Lauterbach 1901).

Preliminary conservation assessment

( IUCN 2020). EOO (8,882 km2 - VU); AOO (24 km2 - EN). Lycianthes kaernbachii is known from five localities, all in the Finesterre range. Its small range, coupled with the lack of collections from protected areas suggest a preliminary threat status of Endangered (EN[B1,2ab(iii,iv)]) for L. kaernbachii .

Discussion.

Lycianthes kaernbachii is probably the most distinctive and unusual of the New Guinea species of Lycianthes . It is a large canopy liana with softly pubescent leaves and is cauliflorous, a character not seen elsewhere in the genus, and one that I have not seen elsewhere in the family. The inflorescence axis is apparently adnate to the stem, and the buds, flowers and fruits are in two parallel rows of varying length between the nodes. Flowers of L. kaernbachii , at less than 1 cm in diameter, are among the smallest (with L. peranomala ) amongst New Guinea Lycianthes . Corolla lobes of L. kaernbachii are valvate in bud and thick and fleshy on live plants, becoming somewhat woody on dry specimens and completely lack interpetalar tissue. This type of corolla is shared with L. oliveriana and L. peranomala , but L. kaernbachii is easily distinguished from those taxa by its soft pubescence on abaxial leaf surfaces ( L. oliveriana is glabrous and L. peranomala has sparse pubescence of stiff antrorse trichomes only along the veins) and its cauliflory (the other two species have strictly axillary inflorescences).

Millar NGF-23365 is less pubescent than most of the other collections of Lycianthes kaernbachii I have seen and was tentatively identified as L. oliveriana by Symon based on a non-reproductive specimen; he later suggested it might be a mixed collection ( Symon 1985). It does, however, have the distinctive linear cauliflory of L. kaernbachii on other duplicates and the pubescence of the new growth indicates it is not a mixed collection but rather an unusual sparsely pubescent plant of L. kaernbachii .

The type specimen of Solanum kaernbachii was held in Berlin and was destroyed in the Second World War, along with the many other types no longer extant ( Vorontsova and Knapp 2010); no duplicates have been found. As a neotype (L.2881629) I have selected a collection from the same locality “Sattelberg” in eastern Papua New Guinea (Clemens 1289) that corresponds to the description in the protologue and is held in several herbaria.

The holotype of Solanum schlechterianum was not destroyed along with other New Guinea collections at Berlin; Bitter (1917) acknowledged the similarity of his new species with L. kaernbachii (as S. kaernbachii ) and his illustration clearly shows the distinctive caulescent inflorescences.

Specimens examined.

Papua New Guinea. Madang: "Kaiser Wilhelmsland, Waldern am Djamu", 700 m, 24 Apr 1908, Schlechter 17339 (P). Morobe: Wareo, 610 m, 1 Jan 1935, Clemens & Clemens 1426 (L); Sankwet L.A., Lae, 60 m, 30 Nov 1967, Kairo & Streimann. NGF-30943 (A, E, K, L, NSW), 30 m, 5 Jan 1968, Kairo & Emos NGF-30983 (A, E, K, L, LAE); Bupu village above Wampit, 762 m, 3 Mar 1964, Millar NGF-23260 (K, L, LAE, NY, US); Bupu village above Wampit, 701 m, 4 Mar 1964, Millar NGF-23365 (A, K, L, LAE, US); midway of Buso River, SE of Buso Camp, 18 Jun 1984, Vinas & Kairo 308 (K) .

Figures

Figure 25. Lycianthes kaernbachii (Lauterb. & K. Schum.) Bitter. Drawing by M. L. Szent-Ivany, first published in Symon (1985: fig. 13, as S. kaernbachii Lauterb. & K. Schum.). Courtesy of the Board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium (Adelaide, South Australia), reproduced with permission.

Figure 26. Lycianthes kaernbachii herbarium specimen. Papua New Guinea. Morobe: Kairo & Streimann NGF- 30943 (A). Courtesy of the Herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, reproduced with permission.

Figure 27. Distribution of Lycianthes kaernbachii.