Mahechadendron puntecascarillo (Vochysiaceae), a new genus and forest tree species from Colombia Ariza-Cortés, William Cortés-B, Rocio Fernández-Alonso, José Luis Phytotaxa 2022 2022-03-25 541 2 89 112 98YFN Ariza-Cortes, Cortes-Ballen & Fern.Alonso Ariza-Cortes, Cortes-Ballen & Fern. Alonso 2022 [136,740,799,822] Magnoliopsida Vochysiaceae Mahechadendron Plantae Myrtales 4 93 Tracheophyta genus gen. nov.    Typespecies:—  Mahechadendron puntecascarilloAriza-Cortés, Cortés-Ballén & Fern.Alonso   Diagnosis:—  Mahechadendrondiffers from other Vochysiaceaegenera by the following combination of characters: axillary inflorescences in compound dichasia, compact, only developed laterally, with numerous flowers (16–30); flowers with the fourth sepal basally sacciform, villous-lanose inside, sessile, elliptic and villous petal, stamen with a villous-lanose filament, without staminodes, ovary with two ovules per locule; capsular fruit with exocarp fused to endocarp even at maturity, not brittle, with a thick and persistent central column; one seed per locule, unilaterally winged.   Description:— Trees, branchlets subopposite, decussate.Axillary cataphylls at the insertion of terminal branchlets, perulate buds prominent. Stipules minute, caducous. Leavessimple, opposite, distichous, caducous; lamina pinnately veined, villous domatia at the base of basal veins in the lower surface. Inflorescencescompound dichasia, axillary, congested, main axis minute, many-flowered. Flowersasymmetrical. Calyx with quincuncial prefloration (aestivation), gamosepalous, with cup-shaped base, forming an angle of 40–60 with the pedicel, five unequal sepals, sepal 4 covering the inner whorls, base saccate, revolute in anthesis, inner surface with white villous-lanose indumentum, sepals 1 and 2 slightly unequal in size, sepals 3 and 5 lightly unequal in size, ovate, inner surface with villous-lanose indumentum; corolla with one petal inserted between sepals 3 and 5 (or slightly offset toward sepal 5), white, margin revolute in anthesis, inner surface with villous-lanose indumentum; androecium and gynoecium maturing apparently at the same time; androecium of one stamen placed offset towards sepal 3 or 5, filament with villous-lanose indumentum, anther bilocular, introrse, longitudinally dehiscent; gynoecium with superior ovary, trilocular, with white villous-lanose indumentum, placentation axile, ovules 2 per locule, style cylindrical, stigma subcapitate. Fruita capsule, trilocular, loculicidal, trivalvous, exocarp soft, slightly tuberculate, glabrous, central column thick, persistent, and shorter than valves. Seed 1 per locule, unilaterally winged, phanerocotylar.   Etymology:—The first part of the name of this genus is dedicated to Gilberto Emilio Mahecha Vega (1942–2021), a notable Colombian Botanist, expert in dendrology, who founded the Herbarium UDBC. He was a professor of Botany and Dendrology at the Universidad Distrital Francisco José Caldasin Bogotáand trained generations of Forest Engineer students for more than two decades. Additionally, he is one of the most prolific collectors of Colombian trees and collected the Puntecascarillo for the first time in the ‘60s. The second part, “dendron” is the Greek word for tree and relates to the arborescent habit.