Lycianthes moziniana (Dunal) Bitter var. margaretiana E.Dean, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 145: 413. 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

30b Lycianthes moziniana (Dunal) Bitter var. margaretiana E.Dean, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 145: 413. 2004 Fig. 68

Type.

Mexico. Nuevo León: Mpio. Zaragoza, Cerro El Viejo, 2085 m, 17 Jun 1993, Hinton et al. 22937 (holotype: DAV [DAV155246]; isotypes: GBH [GBH022937], TEX [00208090], XAL [XAL0106696]).

Description.

Perennial herb, from fusiform storage roots, erect, 0.1-0.6 m tall, dying back each season. Indument of white, uniseriate, multicellular, simple, eglandular, spreading to appressed trichomes 0.1-1.5 mm long, these often of two distinct lengths, the shorter more numerous, 0.1-0.25 mm long and appressed, the longer less numerous, 0.5-1.5 mm long and spreading. Stems green to purple-green, sparsely to moderately pubescent, compressed and ribbed when dried in a plant press, usually with very little woody tissue except at the base; first stem 9-30 cm long to the first inflorescence, internodes (3) 6-14; first sympodial branching point usually dichasial, the subsequent sympodial branching points usually monochasial. Leaves simple, those of the upper sympodia usually paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 1.5-10 × 0.5-4.5 cm, the smaller ones with blades 1/3-9/10 the size of the larger, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate, elliptic, or obovate, chartaceous, sparsely pubescent with trichomes similar to those of the stem, the primary veins 4-6 on either side of the midvein, the base cuneate, attenuate onto the petiole, the margin entire, usually irregularly undulate, the apex rounded to acute, the petioles to 1.5 cm long, sometimes absent. Flowers solitary, axillary, oriented horizontally; peduncles absent; pedicels 30-130 (190) mm and erect in flower, 60-100 mm (probably longer) and deflexed in fruit, often looped or curved, moderately pubescent with trichomes of two distinct lengths, the smaller 0.1-0.3 mm and appressed-retrorse, the longer 0.5-1.5 mm and mostly spreading (slightly retrorse), rarely only the longer trichomes present; calyx 3-5 mm long, 4-7 mm in diameter, campanulate (conic), moderately pubescent (densest on the ribs), the margin truncate, with 10 linear, slightly spreading appendages 3-8 (12.5) mm long emerging ca. 0.5 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, 8-9 mm long, 16-17.5 mm in diameter, the teeth spreading slightly, often broken, 3.5-9 mm long; corolla 1-2.8 cm long (2-4.6 cm in diameter), rotate in orientation, mostly entire in outline (with shallow notches), with abundant interpetalar tissue, lilac, with darker purple stripes on the major veins adaxially, green and glabrous to very sparsely pubescent near the major veins abaxially; stamens unequal, straight, the filaments unequal, the two shortest filaments 2-3 mm long, the two medium filaments 2-3.5 mm long, the one long filament 2.5-5.5 mm long, the length of the longest filament 1.5-2 times the length of the medium filaments, glabrous to pubescent; anthers 4-5 (6) mm long, elliptic to ovate, 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 9-12 mm, linear, straight to slightly curved, glabrous, the stigma round to slightly bilobed. Fruit a berry, remaining attached to calyx at maturity, pendent, 22-30 mm long, 11-19 mm in diameter, ovoid, the exocarp green with rose or tan blotches, glabrous, the mesocarp soft, juicy, lacking sclerotic granules, the placental area variable in texture, sometimes green and juicy, other times purplish and slightly powdery. Seeds ca. 50-100 per fruit per fruit, 2.3-2.8 × 1.7-2.5 mm, rounded, slightly compressed, reniform to depressed-obovate, brownish-black, the surface reticulum with minute serpentine pattern and shallow luminae.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico (Nuevo León, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí), in oak and pine forest that may be mixed with xerophilous scrub, on limestone soils, 900-2700 m in elevation (Fig. 69 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

Flowering specimens have been collected July and August (May in Tamaulipus); mature fruits of Lycianthes moziniana var. margaretiana have not yet been collected from the field. As discussed below, intermediates between L. moziniana var. margaretiana and Lycianthes ciliolata are known from several locations, and specimens with mature fruits have been collected from those populations in November and December. The diurnal corolla movements of this variety were observed in the greenhouse by the first author; the corolla opens in the very early morning and close by late morning. The pollen has a sweet scent.

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes moziniana var. margaretiana is an uncommon variety of the Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico, represented by 19 collections, two of which are from the protected area of the Sierra de Álvarez. The EOO is 36,938.334 km2, and the AOO is 76 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Near Threatened (NT).

Discussion.

Lycianthes moziniana var. margaretiana is closely related to L. moziniana var. oaxacana E. Dean based on DNA sequence data, and it shares the attenuate leaf bases and spreading calyx teeth (in fruit) of that variety. However, its distribution is disjunct from var. oaxacana and presumably the two varieties have been separated for quite some time. Variety margaretiana has several characteristics that differ from the other two varieties of L. moziniana : 1) upon maturity, the fruit exocarp can have tan or purple patches of color; 2) the placental area of the fruits may be purple, sometimes even of a powdery texture similar to the fruits of L. ciliolata ; 3) the pollen is somewhat larger than that of the other two varieties; 4) the stamen filaments can sometimes be pubescent; 5) the abaxial sides of the corolla lobes can sometimes be glabrous; and 6) this variety does not appear to be a weed of agricultural situations ( Dean 2004).

The fruits of L. moziniana var. margaretiana in Nuevo León are green with tan or rose blotches with seeds typical in shape and size for L. moziniana var. moziniana . The placental area of the Nuevo León fruits can be intermediate between L. moziniana var. moziniana and L. ciliolata . Lycianthes moziniana var. margaretiana may be an evolutionary transition between L. ciliolata and L. moziniana var. moziniana . Intermediates between var. margaretiana and L. ciliolata are found in San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, and Querétaro. The intermediate plants resemble var. margaretiana in vegetative and floral characters, however the branching pattern and pollen morphology are intermediate between the two taxa. The fruits of the intermediates are large, up to 50 mm long, the exocarp is rose-colored with the grainy light purple placental area typical of L. ciliolata , but the fruit shape and the shape of the fruiting calyx is that of L. moziniana var. margaretiana . Finally, the seeds of the intermediates have the texture and shape of L. moziniana var. margaretiana but are much larger (4-5 mm long) than usually found in that variety. More study is needed to understand the relationship between L. moziniana var. margaretiana and L. ciliolata in northern Mexico ( Dean 2004).

Representative specimens examined.

Mexico. Nuevo León: Mpio. Galeana, E of the town of Pablillo, San Francisco Canyon, [24.5666, -99.9666], 4 Sep 1993, Dean 360 (DAV, XAL, ANSM). Querétaro: aproximadamente al oeste de La Veracruz, carretera a San Joaquín, 20.9008, -99.5311, 2350 m, 6 Jul 2002, E. Carranza 6365 (DAV, IEB, IBUG). San Luis Potosí: Hwy 86, 25 mi from Juárez Circle, beyond Xoconostle, 22.2, -100.9667, 9000 ft, 5 Jul 1971, M. Andreasen 544 (MO).

Figures

Figure 68. Image of herbarium specimen of L. moziniana var. margaretiana, Carranza 6365 (DAV). Image used with permission of the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity.

Figure 69. Map of geographic distribution of L. moziniana var. margaretiana based on herbarium specimen data.