Passiflora cerasina Annonay & Feuillet

Rome, Maxime & d’Eeckenbrugge, Geo Coppens, 2020, New insights into the distribution and variation of Passiflora cerasina Annonay & Feuillet, Adansonia (3) 42 (17), pp. 273-278 : 274-277

Passiflora cerasina Annonay & Feuillet

( Figs 1 ; 2 )

SIDA Contributions to Botany 17 (3): 551-554, f. 1 (1997).

— Type: French Guiana, Montagne de Kaw , road of Kaw, Pk 6, locus classicus, 5.III.2017, Rome 587 (neo-, P [ P00936446 , P00936447 ], here designated) .

EXAMINED SPECIMENS. — P. cerasina (examined on fresh specimens). French Guiana. After Iracoubo , Pk 161.5, 13.III.2017, Rome 581 ( P00936451 ) . — Path of gîte Moutouchi, Plateaux des Mines, 14.III.2017, Rome 583 ( P00936454 ) , Rome 584 ( P00936452 ) , Rome 585 ( P00936448 , P00936449 , P00936450 ) . — Path of Kapiri Creek , 11.XII.2009, Rome 222 ( LYJB) , Rome 223 ( LYJB) , Rome 224 ( LYJB) , Rome 227 ( LYJB) , Rome 238 ( LYJB) ; 8.III.2017, Rome 576 ( P) . — Road of Kaw , 23.IV.2008, Rome 98 ( LYJB) ; 11.XII.2009, Rome 200 ( LYJB) ; 5.III.2017, Rome 573 ( P00936458 ) ; 28.II.2017, Rome 555 ( P00936459 , P00936460 , P00936461 ) . — Road of Roura wastewater treatment plant, 2.III.2017, Rome 560 ( P00936462 ) . — Road of Port Larivot , 7.III.2017, Rome 572 ( P00936463 , P00936464 ) . — Road between Mana and Saint Laurent, 14.III.2017, Rome 586 ( P00936453 ) . — Road of Saint Georges , 19.V.2008, Rome 126 ( LYJB) , Rome 127 ( LYJB) , Rome 128 ( LYJB) , Rome 140 ( LYJB) , Rome 141 ( LYJB) . — Path between Camp Citron and Paul Isnard, 3.VI.2008, Rome 153 ( LYJB) , Rome 155 ( LYJB) , Rome 160 ( LYJB) , Rome 161 ( LYJB) . — Crossroad of Boeuf Mort , 3.VI.2008, Rome 164 ( LYJB) . — Mounts Dékou Dékou , Montagne d’Or, 3.VI.2008, Rome 168 ( LYJB) . — Path of Délice , 3.VI.2008, Rome 173 ( LYJB) , Rome 176 ( LYJB) . — Path of Plateau des Cascades, 5.IV.2008, Rome 26 ( LYJB) .

P. cerasina (examined on herbarium specimens). French Guiana. Mount Grand Matoury , île de Cayenne, 5.IV.1995, Cremers 13889 ( P05619264 ) . — Suriname. Mount Brownsberg , 12.VII.1974, Vreden 13727 ( BBS) .

Passiflora sp. Guyana. Cuyuni-Mazaruni, 2-5 km NW of northern prov. Roraima , 24.II.1989, Hahn 5496 ( US) . — Venezuela. Amazonas; Carinagua, Caño Carinagua , 5-6 km E of Pto. Ayacucho, 19.XI.1977, Morillo 6818 ( US) .

DESCRIPTION

Woody liana with a pubescence on young vegetative parts (stems, petioles and tendrils). Stems rounded, glabrous and green. Tendrils conical, glabrous, moderately (<80%) to strongly tinged with cherry red. Stipules setaceous to linear, greenish yellow to brown red, glandular (0-1 gland), glabrous, 6.2-9.1 × 0.3-0.7 mm, soon deciduous. Petiole 13-23 mm, greenish yellow to green, slightly canaliculate on the upper part, glabrous, with two sessile and ovate glands to 5-11 mm from the petiole base. Leaves unlobed, 9.2-15 × 5.1-8.5 cm, glabrous throughout, green to dark green (young leaves yellow), upper surface lustrous, rounded to cordate at base, obtuse (>90°) to acute (between 45 and 90°) at apex, mucronate and acuminate; margin entire to serrulate-glandular with the presence of 0-10 minute marginal nectaries. Peduncle terete, slightly to strongly tinged with red, glabrous, 1.3-2.5 mm in diameter, 26- 48 mm long; pedicel 4.4-7.7 mm long. Bracts persistent (until complete ripeness of fruit), slightly pubescent on both sides, green to dark red, concave, 46-56 mm long, 30-54 mm wide, with 3-9 sessile nectaries around the upper half. Flowers fragrant (lily fragrance), axillary, pendulous, 24-29 mm long (from the nectary chamber to the ovary apex), solitary or clustered in pseudoracemes. Hypanthium slightly pubescent, purplish white to purple outside and white inside, 6.7-9.3 mm (including the nectary chamber, 5-6.3 mm long), with a diameter of 17-23 mm at the sepal base. Sepals slightly pubescent, oblong, 43-53 mm long, 13-19 mm wide, adaxial and abaxial faces highly variable in coloration, from white with pinkish or red dots to uniformly red, slightly keel-shaped in distal half with a short to medium awn (3-7.2 mm long). Petals glabrous, oblong, 42-51 mm long, 7-12 mm wide, same coloration patterns as sepals. Corona filaments in 4-5 series, banded with white and red to dark violet; two major outer series unequal; outermost series 23.6-28.9 mm long, second series 41-55.6 mm long; third series 4.6-6.4 mm long, comma-shaped, at base of the second series; the fourth and innermost series 8.5-9.5 mm long, with filaments more or less merged at base, almost perpendicular to other series, closing the hypanthium entrance; between the third and fourth series, an atrophied series is sometimes visible. Operculum membranous, reddish, 3.6-5.2 mm long, recurved, thinly fimbriate at margin. Androgynophore glabrous, nearly white to densely dotted with red, 8.7-16 mm long with an enlarged, red-dotted base, with two bulges 8.9- 12.8 mm in diameter. Limen atrophied or even reduced to the basal bulge. Staminal filaments 10.9-13.9 mm long, greenish white with red dots. Ovary ovoid, pubescent, light yellow, 7.1-9.6 mm long; three pubescent styles, white with red dots, 14-19.1 mm long, stigmas light yellow. Fruit oblong, pubescent, 61-84 mm long, 43-58 mm in diameter, rounded-triangular in transversal section, pericarp about 0.7-1.2 cm thick; unripe fruit green with minute white dots; ripe fruit light yellow, slightly dotted, with a sweet translucent pulp. Seeds obovoid, flat, heart shaped, coarsely reticulate, c. 6 × 5 mm, nearly flat, 1.5 mm thick at the middle, canaliculate at margin, each half crenate at margin, brown.

Contrary to the original description, the species appears to be pubescent on the young parts of the plant (stems, stipules, petioles), as well as on the bracts, hypanthium, ovary and styles. The morphological characterization of the new materials extends the variability in the size of vegetative and floral organs. Furthermore, the cherry red coloration of the bracts, petals, sepals, endocarp and ovules, appears to be much more variable than mentioned in the original description. Thus, the bracts can be entirely green, while the petals and sepals can vary from white with pink dots to uniformly dark red. Finally, we have not observed any red [or purple] coloration on the endocarp and the ovules.

The locus classicus population of P. cerasina still exists on Kaw mountain, with several individuals easily observable from the roadside. Only two other collection sites had been sampled for herbaria, in Grand Matoury near Cayenne and the Brownsberg mountain in Suriname. In our survey, we have observed that P. cerasina is common on the road between Regina and Saint Georges and on the Dékou Dékou mountains. We could also find it in the Mirande Reserve, on the road of Port Larivot, near Iracoubo, as well as on the Plateau des Mines and between Mana and Saint Laurent du Maroni. The herbarium specimens Morillo 6818 and Hahn 5496, respectively collected in the Venezuelan Amazon (Puerto Ayacucho) and in Guyana (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), conserved at the US Herbarium and identified as Passiflora cf. cerasina by Christian Feuillet are sterile specimens and cannot be considered as reliable new localities, because of the very difficult identification on dry vegetative organs.

The species has been seen in flower only between February 28 and March 14, 2017, in fruit around April 10, 2008. It was flowering on July 12, 1974, when collected on the Brownsberg mountain in Suriname.

To help identify species from series Laurifoliae in French Guiana and Suriname, we present a determination key. It first separates the species on the most available and discriminant vegetative criterion (the position of the nectarbearing glands on the petiole).

Figures

FIG. 1. — Passiflora cerasina Annonay & Feuillet:A, young stems with yellow greenish leaves, cherry red tendrils and stipules; B, Mature leaf with two nectaries at the middle of petiole; C, D, Flowers from the Kaw mountain (same population as holotype and neotype); E, transversal section of the flower, showing the fourth inner series closing the nectary chamber;F, Flower from the Kapiri Creek (Saint Georges), an example of variation in the color of bracts and perianth; G, H, Fruits from the Plateau des Mines, near Saint Laurent du Maroni. Scale bars: 1 cm.

FIG. 2. — Geographic distribution of P. cerasina Annonay & Feuillet from field collections and herbarium specimens.