Geonoma peruviana Henderson, 2011

Henderson, Andrew, 2011, A revision of Geonoma (Arecaceae), Phytotaxa 17, pp. 1-271 : 116-117

48. Geonoma peruviana Henderson , sp. nov. (Appendix IV, Plate 53)

A speciebus affinibus internodis squamis brenneis crebre tectis differt.

Type: PERU. Huánuco: Prov. Leoncio Prado, Distrito Hermilio Valdizan, cerca La Divisoria, 1500–1600 m, 25 June 1976, J. Schunke 9416 (holotype MO!).

Plants 1.0(0.9–1.2) m tall; stems height no data, 1.0(0.8–1.2) cm in diameter, branching no data, not cane-like or cane-like; internodes 0.4(0.3–0.5) cm long, covered with dense, brown scales. Leaves irregularly pinnate, not plicate, bases of blades running diagonally into the rachis; sheaths no data; petioles drying green or yellowish; rachis no data; veins not raised or slightly raised and triangular in cross-section adaxially; pinnae 3 per side of rachis; basal pinna length, width, and angle no data; apical pinna 12.5 cm long, 15.0 cm wide, forming an angle of 40° with the rachis. Inflorescences branched 2 orders; prophylls and peduncular bracts not ribbed with elongate, unbranched fibers, flattened (if tubular, narrow, and elongate then not ribbed), deciduous or persistent; prophylls 8.5 cm long, not short and asymmetrically apiculate, the surfaces not ridged, without unequally wide ridges; peduncular bracts length no data, well-developed, no data on insertion; peduncles 17.0 cm long, 2.3 mm in diameter; rachillae 10(9–10), 7.4(6.5–8.2) cm long, 1.2(1.1–1.3) mm in diameter, the surfaces without spiky, fibrous projections or ridges, drying brown, with faint to pronounced, short, transverse ridges, not filiform and not narrowed between the flower pits; flower pits spirally arranged, glabrous internally; proximal lips without a central notch before anthesis, not recurved after anthesis, hood-shaped at anthesis, sometimes splitting post-anthesis; proximal and distal lips drying the same color as the rachillae, not joined to form a raised cupule, the proximal lip margins overlapping the distal lip margins; distal lips welldeveloped; staminate and pistillate petals not emergent, not valvate throughout; staminate flowers deciduous after anthesis; stamens 6; thecae diverging at anthesis, inserted almost directly onto the filament apices, the connectives bifid but scarcely developed; anthers short and curled over at anthesis; non-fertilized pistillate flowers deciduous after anthesis; staminodial tubes crenulate or shallowly lobed at the apex, those of nonfertilized pistillate flowers not projecting and persistent after anthesis; fruits 5.4 mm long, 5.2 mm in diameter, the bases without a prominent stipe, the apices not conical, the surfaces not splitting at maturity, without fibers emerging, bumpy from the numerous, subepidermal, tangential, short fibers present, these coming to a point at fruit apices; locular epidermis without operculum, smooth, without pores.

Distribution and habitat:— At 9°00’S and 75°55’W in Peru (Huánuco) on eastern Andean slopes at 1550 m elevation in montane rainforest ( Fig. 30 ).

Taxonomic notes:— Only two specimens of this species are known. It differs from related species in its internodes covered with dense, brown scales.

Subspecific variation:— No trait varies within this species, nor is there any geographic disjunction.

Figures

FIGURE 30. Distribution maps of Geonoma orbignyana subsp. hoffmanniana, G. paradoxa, G. pauciflora, and G. peruviana.