Passiflora aimae Annonay & Feuillet

Rome, Maxime, MacDOUGAL, John M., Svoboda, Harlan T. & COPPENS D’EECKENBRUGGE, Geo, 2024, A revised and annotated checklist of the genus Passiflora L. in French Guiana, Adansonia (3) 46 (20), pp. 197-221 : 206

Passiflora aimae Annonay & Feuillet

Adansonia, sér. 3, 20: 297, 298 ( Annonay & Feuillet 1998).

TYPE SPECIMENS. — French Guiana • Approuague basin, Nouragues Station; 28.VIII.1987; C. Feuillet 4394; lecto-, CAY [ CAY218553 ], designated here • Piste de St-Elie , PK 14 to 17; 28.IX.2008; C. Feuillet 17049; epi-, CAY [ CAY095505 ], designated here.

DISTRIBUTION. — Endemic to French Guiana.

NOTE

The holotype and the two isotypes mentioned in the protologue have never been deposited in institutions. Only a sterile paratype (Feuillet 4394) is found in the herbarium of Cayenne not showing all of the diagnostic criteria the species. According to article 9.3 ( Turland et al. 2018), we designate this latter specimen as lectotype. Feuillet 17049, a fertile specimen collected from the locus classicus, is designated as epitype to complete the understanding of flowers of this species.

The stated holotype of P. aimae (mentioned in the protologue) comes from the Saint Elie trail. In this area, were discovered P. longicuspis and P. curva , also belonging to supersection Coccinea . These three species are known only from a single fertile individual. Their morphology is intermediate between P. coccinea and P. glandulosa , two locally abundant species that are able to flower at the same time. The lack of genetic analysis on this group of species does not allow us to conclude on the links between these taxa, but the extreme rarity of these species, their morphology, and their geography all suggest that they are natural hybrids between P. glandulosa and P. coccinea . This is reinforced by the fact that P. curva was found side-by-side with P. aimae (Feuillet 2009) , an observation confirmed by the first author. JohnVanderplank (2015), who had participated in the first collection of P. aimae and P. longicuspis , and observed the type of P. curva with Christian Feuillet, also developed arguments pointing to the likely hybrid nature of these taxa.