Vriesea marceloi Versieux & T. Machado, 2012

Versieux, Leonardo M. & Machado, Talita Mota, 2012, A new ornithophilous yellow-flowered Vriesea (Bromeliaceae) from Serra do Caraça, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Phytotaxa 71 (1), pp. 36-41 : 37-40

Vriesea marceloi Versieux & T. Machado , spec. nov. ( Figs. 1–2 ).

Vriesea marceloi is closely related to V. stricta Smith (1943: 122) but differs by the congested spikes, by the leaf apex rounded to nearly emarginate, and by the size, color, and texture of the floral bracts. It is also related to V. claudiana Leme, Trindade-Lima & Ribeiro (2010: 19) , but differs by the shorter stature, inflorescence with smaller number of branches, size of the sepals and petals, and by the color and size of the peduncle.

Type:— BRAZIL. Minas Gerais: Catas Altas, Serra do Caraça, Pico do Inficionado , campo rupestre, 2040 m, 11 October 1999, M. F . Vasconcelos s.n., (holotype: BHCB 52562 !) .

Evergreen herb, flowering 0.4–0.6 m tall, rupicolous, heliophyte. Rosette 30–35 cm high, nearly tubular. Leaves ca. 15, erect, the old ones persistent and wrapping the younger. Leaf sheath 11–17 × 6–7.5 cm, broadly elliptic to oblong, pale brown to purplish toward the apex in vivo, castaneous and brown lepidote on both surfaces in sicco. Leaf blade 12–18.5 × 4.8–5.5 cm, lingulate, apex rounded to nearly emarginate, mucronate, green becoming purple toward apex in vivo, coriaceous, subdensely to sparsely pale brown lepidote on both surfaces. Peduncle 13.5–25(39) × 0.3–0.4 cm, erect, slender, reddish to purplish; internodes 3.0–4.2 (proximal and central ones) to 2.6–4.6(5.2) cm (distal ones). Peduncle bracts 2.2–2.7 × 2–2.5 cm at the middle, broadly ovate, apex acute and minutely apiculate, yellow to brownish yellow, subdensely lepidote toward the apex abaxially, shorter than the internodes and enfolding them tightly, erect. Inflorescence (excluding the peduncle) 13.5–17.5 × 7–14 cm, compound, with 2–3 suberect flowering branches that are erect while flowers in bud, but diverging to be suberect at anthesis, 3–7 flowers on the proximal branches and 8–15 flowers on the distal branch; internodes of the axis 0.4–0.8 cm. Primary bracts 2.2–2.6 × 2.0– 2.9 cm, broadly ovate, apiculate, brown to purple with yellow edges. Stipes of the branches 1.1–2.1 cm long, 0.2–0.4 cm diam., green to purplish. Rachis 3.2–6(7.4) cm long, 0.2–0.5 cm diam. Floral bracts 1.7–2.6 × 1.6–2.5 cm, broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, apex obtuse, inconspicuously apiculate, with purplish brown to yellowish margins in vivo, pale yellowish-brown along the margins becoming dark castaneous and lustrous toward the slightly convex center in sicco, sparsely brown lepidote at the apex abaxially, sparsely lepidote adaxially, secund with the flowers at anthesis, ecarinate, decurrent on the rachis. Flowers distichous becoming secund, 3.1–4 cm in length; pedicels ca. 4 × 5 mm. Sepals 2.3–2.5 × 1.1–1.2 cm, elliptic to oblong, apex obtuse, symmetric, free, yellow, sparsely lepidote adaxially, glabrous or nearly so abaxially, ecarinate. Corolla tubular. Petals ca. 3.2 × 0.9 cm, narrowly ovate to elliptic, apex acute, connate for 2.3 mm, bright yellow; petal appendages 5–6 × 1–2 mm, lanceolate, symmetrical or nearly so, the distal part 3–4 mm free, apex acute to acuminate. Filaments ca. 18 × 0.7–0.9 mm, adnate to petals for 1.2 mm. Anthers ca. 6–7 × 1–2 mm, linear, dorsifixed near the base, yellow. Style ca. 2.4 cm. Stigma yellow, ca. 1.5 mm in diameter, with convolute blade type. Ovary ovoid, ca. 4 × 2 mm. Ovules caudate.

Distribution and conservation: —So far restricted to the Pico do Inficionado and Pico do Sol, Serra do Caraça, along the southern portion of Espinhaço Range, between Catas Altas and Santa Bárbara municipalities. The species appears to be very selective regarding habitat, only growing at the higher elevations (> 1900 m. a.s.l.) where mist formation is frequent ( Fig. 1 ). More field studies are necessary in order to clearly establish the conservation status of the species, but it is rare and currently only known from two populations growing inside a Serra do Caraça private reserve.

Ecology: —The species blooms from October to February. Vriesea marceloi is ornithophilous and is visited by two different species of hummingbirds: Campylopterus largipennis and Augastes scutatus . Other plant species associated with V. marceloi include Chusquea sp. (Poaceae) and different lichen species.

Etymology: —The species is named after Prof. Dr. Marcelo Ferreira de Vasconcelos, a Zoologist/ Ornithologist from the The Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC-MG). Besides collecting and photographing the type specimens and observing the floral visitors in the field, Dr. Vasconcelos has made substantial contributions to the knowledge of the biota of high elevation habitats in southeastern Brazil (e.g., Vasconcelos 2000, Vasconcelos & Rodrigues 2010), collected several important specimens of rare bromeliads ( Versieux & Wendt 2006) and is an active conservationist.

Paratypes:— BRAZIL. Minas Gerais: Catas Altas, Serra do Caraça, Pico do Inficionado , campo rupestre, 2020 m. elevation, 17 February 2000, M. F . Vasconcelos s.n. ( BHCB 52555 !). Idem, 24 March 2000, M. F . Vasconcelos s. n. ( BHCB 53707 !). Ibidem, Pico do Sol , 1918 m, 25 April 2009, C. T . Oliveira et al. 419 ( BHCB 142320 !) .

Observations: — Vriesea marceloi apparently belongs to an informal group of yellow-flowered lithophytes that was called “ Vriesea minarum complex” by Versieux (2011). These plants are usually short in stature and have simple or few-branched inflorescences, and grow on isolated mountain tops across the Espinhaço and Mantiqueira mountain ranges in Minas Gerais. Specimens of Vriesea marceloi have been identified (according to herbarium BHCB determination tags by Versieux in 2003) as V. cf. clausseniana ( Baker 1889: 213) Mez (1894: 545) or as V. stricta ( Versieux 2011) . However, photographs became available to the authors allowing the examination of floral and color characters.

The new species can be separated from V. clausseniana (another species endemic to the Iron Quadrangle) by the size of the flowering plant, size of the floral bracts, size of the peduncle and branches. Vriesea clausseniana usually has a larger sized and unbranched inflorescences, while only few-branched inflorescences are seen in V. marceloi . Also, the corolla is more open in V. clausseniana , suggesting bat pollination, while in V. marceloi the corolla is tubular and flowers are visited by two different species of hummingbirds (M. F. Vasconcelos, personal communication). The flowering period appears to be different as well: V.marceloi blooms during the summer while V. clausseniana blooms from late April to June, i.e., during part of the the Brazilian autumn and winter ( Versieux & Wendt 2006). However the blooming period does not hold V. marceloi separation from V. stricta and from V. claudiana , because there is overlap in flowering period.

The most conspicuous differences between V. marceloi and V. stricta are the floral bracts color, texture, and size, and the density of flowers in the spikes. Inflorescences are more congest in V. marceloi if compared to the more laxly flowered branches of V. stricta , where the rachis internodes are more exposed. Also, the number of branches observed varies (3–10 in V. stricta vs. up to 3 in V. marceloi ). The peduncle is usually longer in V. stricta (19–34 vs. 13.5–25(–39) cm in V. marceloi ) ( Table 1). The texture and width of the floral bracts are distinct between both species. While the floral bracts have a thinner texture and are nearly smooth in V. stricta , in V. marceloi they are slightly gibbous, more coriaceous, castaneous along the central portion and yellowish-brown and thinner along the margins in sicco, resembling more closely the floral bracts of V. clausseniana . The populations of V. marceloi are geographically isolated in Serra do Caraça from those of V. stricta that are endemic to Serra do Cipó ( Coffani-Nunes et al. 2010).

Vriesea claudiana is restricted to the Mantiqueira mountain range in the Atlantic Rainforest domain ( Leme et al. 2010). Vriesea claudiana can be separated from V. marceloi by the greenish-glaucous blades covered by a thin layer of white epicuticular wax (vs. green blades becoming purple toward apex without wax), by the green peduncle bracts exceeding the internodes (vs. yellow to brownish yellow peduncle bracts shorter than the internodes), by the color and length of peduncle, which are also different. In V. claudiana the peduncle is almost two times longer (35–50 cm and greenish vs. 13.5–25(39) cm and reddish to purplish in V. marceloi ). The number of branches is larger in V. claudiana (4–5 vs. 2–3 in V. marceloi ), the rosette shape (funnelform vs. nearly tubular) and also the size of the sepals and petals are distinct ( Table 1).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Vriesea marceloi at the type locality. A. Living plant that was collected to prepare the holotype. B. Paratype (Vasconcelos BHCB 52555). (Photos: M. F. Vasconcelos).

FIGURE 2. Holotype of Vriesea marceloi consisting of two herbarium sheets (Vasconcelos BHCB 52562). Scales = 5 cm. (Photos: L.M. Versieux).