Lycianthes gorgonea Bitter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 20: 364. 1924

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

19 Lycianthes gorgonea Bitter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 20: 364. 1924 Fig. 44

Solanum cuspidatum C.V.Morton, Contr. Univ. Michigan Herb. 4: 25. 1940. Type: Belize, El Cayo District, on Arenal-Valentín road along roadside through high forest, 20-21 Jun 1936, C. Lundell 6172 (holotype: US [acc. # 1688328]; isotypes: GH [00077476], LL [00372872], MI [1109941], MO [acc. # 1278667], NY [00138976], S [acc. # 04-2899]), TEX [00372873]).

Lycianthes cuspidata (C.V.Morton) Standl. & Steyerm., Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 23: 18. 1943. Type: Based on Solanum cuspidatum C.V.Morton.

Type.

Guatemala. Sacluc, Aug 1877, K. Bernoulli & O. Cario 2357 (holotype: GOET [GOET003446]).

Description.

Shrub to woody vine, 1-4 m tall. Indument of white to tan, uniseriate, multicellular, simple, eglandular and/or glandular, spreading trichomes 0.5-3 mm long. Stems greenish-tan when young, moderately to densely pubescent, not compressed when dried in a plant press, becoming woody with age; upper sympodial branching points a mixture of dichasial and monochasial, the branching divaricate and zigzagging. Leaves simple, the leaves of the upper sympodia usually paired, the leaf pairs often conspicuously different in size and shape, the larger ones with blades 4-11 × 2-4 cm, ovate to lanceolate, the smaller ones with blades 0.5-4 × 0.5-2 cm, orbicular to ovate, the leaf pairs similar in texture, membranaceous, moderately pubescent (densely pubescent along the midvein of the abaxial side), the base cuneate to rounded, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually undulate, the apex acute to acuminate, the petiole to 0.5 (1) cm long, sometimes absent, the larger leaf blades with 5-7 primary veins on each side of the midvein. Flowers solitary, axillary, oriented horizontally; peduncles absent; pedicels 15-25 mm and erect to arching in flower, to 40 mm long and spreading in fruit, densely pubescent; calyx 2-2.5 mm long, 3-3.5 mm in diameter, obconic to campanulate, densely pubescent (sometimes nearly obscured), the margin truncate, with 10 very long spreading linear appendages 7-15 mm long emerging 0.5 mm below the calyx rim; fruiting calyx usually enlarged, widely campanulate to bowl-shaped, 2.5-5 mm long, 6-9 mm in diameter, the appendages to 20 mm long, spreading; corolla 1-1.5 cm long, rotate in orientation, entire in outline, with abundant interpetalar tissue, white to pale blue-violet, glabrous adaxially, with long trichomes near the veins abaxially; stamens equal or nearly so, straight, the filaments 1-2 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 4-4.5 mm long, elliptic, connate to one another at their edges, yellow, glabrous, poricidal at the tips, the pores round, large, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 7-9 mm long, linear, straight to curved, glabrous; stigma capitate, decurrent down two sides. Fruit a berry, 5-8 mm long, 5-9 mm in diameter, globose, red at maturity, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 15-25 per fruit, 2.25-2.5 × 2.5-3 mm, flattened to unevenly thickened and curved, triangular to depressed ovate in outline, yellow-orange, the surface reticulum with minute serpentine pattern and shallow luminae.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Distribution and habitat.

Mexico (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Veracruz), Guatemala (Alta Verapaz, Petén), and Belize (El Cayo), in high forest, lower montane rain forest, and tropical moist forest, often on limestone ridges or in canyons, sometimes near streams, 200-1000 m in elevation (Fig. 45 ).

Common names and uses.

None known.

Phenology.

Flowering specimens have been collected November through August. Specimens with mature fruits have been collected April and July through November. Many specimens have been collected with immature fruits, and these have been collected throughout the year. In Belize, the corollas of this species open at sunrise and close at sunset ( Smith and Knapp 2002).

Preliminary conservation status.

Lycianthes gorgonea is a species of lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, represented by 31 collections and occurring in six protected areas. The EOO is 79,973.926 km2, and the AOO is 108 km2. Based on the IUCN (2019) criteria, the preliminary assessment category is Least Concern (LC).

Discussion.

Lycianthes gorgonea is a distinctive species of lower elevation tropical rain forest, often found on limestone. The divaricate, zigzag branching of this species, in combination with a distinctive size/shape difference of the paired geminate leaves, soft long, pale trichomes, and very long calyx appendages, is quite different from any other species of Lycianthes in Mexico and Central America. The pollination of this species was studied in Belize by Smith and Knapp (2002), and they found that the flowers are visited by the bee genus Paratetrapedia .

Representative specimens examined.

Guatemala. Alta Verapaz: between Limón and Chisec, 200-230 m, 19 Mar 1942, J.A. Steyermark 45116 (NY, LL). Petén: Uaxactun, on Dos Lagunas road, in zapotal/ramonal, 3 km W, 22 Jan 1977, C. L. Lundell 20534 (MO, LL). Mexico. Chiapas: Mpio. Barriozábal, along road from Berriozábal to Las Maravillas, ca. 1.4 km S of the town of Efraín A. Gutiérrez, in remnant of tall forest called La Mata Café, 16.8711, -93.2956, 1005 m, 12 Sep 2017, E. Dean 9528 (DAV). Oaxaca: Dto. Tuxtepec, predio La Joya del Obispo, [17.8599, -96.2060], 12 Aug 1990, C. H. Ramos 435 (IEB, MEXU, XAL). Tabasco: ladera W del Cerro del Madrigal, cerca de la base, Puyacatengo, [17.5213, -92.9225], 25 Mar 1992, M. A. Guadarrama-O. 1244 (TEX). Veracruz: Mpio. Minatitlán, 6.6 km al Norte de la terracería La Laguna-Río Grande, sobre el camino nuevo (no completo) a Ejido Belisario Domínguez, el cual sale de la terracería 14.7 km al E. de La Laguna, 17.3333, -94.3667, 130 m, 13 Jul 1980, T. Wendt 2557 (MO).

Figures

Figure 44. Image of herbarium specimen of L. gorgonea, Dean 9528 (DAV). Image used with permission of the UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity.

Figure 45. Map of geographic distribution of L. gorgonea based on herbarium specimen data.