New Cryptanthus species (Bromeliaceae: Bromelioideae) from the State of Bahia, Brazil Souza, Everton Hilo De Leme, Elton M. C. Phytotaxa 2021 2021-10-20 523 2 179 191 9V5JB Leme & E.H. Souza Leme & E. H. Souza 2021 [164,639,475,502] Liliopsida Bromeliaceae Cryptanthus Plantae Poales 7 186 Tracheophyta species santosii sp. nov.   Diagnosis:—This new species can be distinguished from the closest relative,  C. walkerianus, by the longer leaves ( 60–95 cm vs. 35–75 cm), with longer pseudopetioles ( 32–57 cm vs. 12–33 cm), and narrower blades ( 3.5–4.2 cm vs. 5.5–9 cm), inflorescence with an inconspicuous central head of staminate flowers ( vs.conspicuous central head of staminate flowers), sepals densely and remotely denticulate ( vs. entire), and petals longer ( ca. 40 mm vs. 27–28 mmlong) and acute ( vs. obtuse).   Type:—  BRAZIL. Bahia: Belmonte, BA-275, near to Rio Preto, entrance to the right toward Riodo BU, Comunidade do Canta Galo,  75 melevation,  12 October 2019,  E. Leme9835, J.E. Santos& E.H. Souza( holotype RB!, isotype HURB!).   Description:— Plantsterrestrial, stemless, propagating by short basal shoots.  Leavesca. 8 innumber, 60–95 cmlong, suberect at anthesis, laxly arranged; sheathtrapeziform, 5 × 2.5–3 cm, green to wine colored mainly abaxially, inconspicuously and sparsely white lepidote, distinctly rugose, inconspicuously and densely spinulose near distal end; bladelong petiolate; petiole32–57 × 0.5–0.8 cm, distinctly contrasting with the blades, strongly “U”-channeled, thick coriaceous, subdensely white lepidote abaxially, sparsely white lepidote to glabrous adaxially, wine colored near the base and green toward distal end, margins entire or irregularly and minutely spinulose mainly near the base and distal end; bladenarrowly lanceolate, apex long caudate, 22–39 × 3.5–4.2 cm, thin coriaceous, thicker channel absent, flat toward the apex, dull green colored, sulcate due to sparsely pronounced longitudinal nerves, abaxially densely and coarsely white lepidote, adaxially inconspicuously and sparsely white lepidote but appearing glabrous, margins straight or inconspicuously if at all undulate, subentire or irregularly and minutely spinulose at the base and near the apex to densely and inconspicuously spinulose throughout; spinestriangular, straight to slightly antrorsely uncinate, ca. 0.3 mmlong, 1.5–10 mmapart.  Inflorescenceca. 5 cmlong, ca. 1.5 cmin diameter, sessile, slightly elongate, once branched at the base and bearing an inconspicuous, simple, upper-central head of ca. 10 densely arranged flowers, surrounded by ca. 3 fascicles; primary bractsresembling the leaves; fasciclesinconspicuous, ca.2 flowered, complanate; floral bractsnarrowly triangular-lanceolate, acuminate, 15–17 × 5–7 mm, straight, membranous, white-hyaline toward the base, reddish near the apex, sparsely brown lepidote toward the apex, minutely spinulose near the apex to entire, with fimbriate trichomes along the apical margins, exceeding the ovary to equaling 1/4 of the sepal length, those in the fascicles distinctly carinate, those in the upper-central head of flowers ecarinate. Flowerssessile, odorless, the perfect ones ca. 53 mmlong (with the petals extended), the staminate ones ca. 48 mmlong (with the petals extended); sepals 19–20 mmlong, connate for 11–12 mm, whitish, sparsely and coarsely brown lepidote toward the apex; the lobesnarrowly elliptic-lanceolate, long acuminate, 8 × 3–3.5 mm, symmetrical, obtusely carinate, margins densely and remotely denticulate, with inconspicuously fimbriate trichomes; petalslingulate, apex acute, white, exceeding the stamens but recurved at anthesis and exposing them; those of the perfect flowers ca. 40 × 5 mm, connate at the base for ca. 9 mm, bearing 2 conspicuous callosities at the base of the free lobes;  filamentsca. 31 mmlong, the antesepalous ones for ca. 9 mmadnate to the petal-tube, the antepetalous ones adnate to the petals for ca. 15 mm; anthers 2–3 mmlong, dorsifixed at 1/3 of its length above the base, base obtusely bilobed, apex obtuse; ovarysubtrigonous obovoid, 12–13 × 5 mm, white, glabrous or nearly so; stigmawhite, conduplicate-patent, lobes suberect, ca. 3 mmlong, margins shortly crenulate; epigynous tubelacking; placentation apical; ovulesfew, obtuse. Fruitsunknown.   Distribution, habitat and conservation:—  Cryptanthus santosiiwas found growing as a terrestrial species on the shaded forest floor in a small Restinga area near the highway, in the county of Belmonte, Bahia( Fig. 1and 2 C). The population at the typelocality is constituted by isolated and scattered individuals or sometimes by small groups of plants in a sandy terrain. The region where this new species was found shelters only small forest fragments that remained after a severe deforestation process for pasture faming activities, agriculture of monocultures and also for expansion of local communities. The GeoCAT (Bachmann et al.2011) estimated the extent of the occurrence of  C. santosiias about 1.850 km 2, while its area of occupancy is 12.000 Km² (AOO), so classifying the species as critically endangered (CR) according to the criteria adopted by IUCN (2020).   Etymology:—The name chosen for this new species honors its collector, João Eduardo dos Santos, responsible for the preservation of an important fragment of Atlantic Forest in the county of Itapebi, Bahia state, and responsible for several botanical descoveries.  Observations:—  Cryptanthus santosiiis morphologically closely related to  C. walkerianusLeme & L. Kollmann( Leme et al. 2014: 83), a typical inhabitant of the low elevated Atlantic Forest of the state of Bahia. However, this new species differs from it by its longer leaves, with longer petioles and narrower blades. On the other hand, the inflorescence has an inconspicuous central head of staminate flowers, sepals are longer with broader lobes which are densely and remotely denticulate, not entire. Finally, petals are longer and acute, not obtuse, forming a longer basal tube. The long petiolate leaves of  C. santosiimake it also morphologically close to  C. teretifolius Leme (2002b: 15), which grows in the coastal sector of Espírito Santo state, near the city of Vitória. The most important differences to this species are the leaf blades with longer petioles ( 32–57 cm vs. 8–22 cm), which are strongly “U”-channeled ( vs. involute-subulate and terete in cross section), one of its striking differences, as well as the longer sepals ( 19–20 mm vs. ca. 16 mm), and petals with acute apex ( vs. rounded to slightly cucullate). 3391163302 2019-10-12 RB, HURB E. Leme & J. E. Santos & E. H. Souza Brazil Belmonte 75 Rio Rio Preto 7 186 1 Bahia holotype