Elaeagia coriacea Maldonado 2014, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Maldonado, Carla
name: Borchsenius, Finn
name: Taylor, Charlotte M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Gentianales
Rubiaceae
Elaeagia
Elaeagia coriacea

description: Elaeagia coriacea Maldonado, sp. nov. (Figure 1)
Type:— ECUADOR. Zamora-Chinchipe: San Francisco Scientific Station, road Loja-Zamora, ca. 30 km from Loja, 2070 m, 3°58’S, 79°04’W, 11 Sept 2001, J. Homeier 966 (holotype MO-5679317!; isotype QCNE!).
Species nova magnitudine florium et fructuum Elaeagia ecuadorensis Steyermark (1960: 242) affinis, a qua differt magnitudine foliorum, lobis calycis dentatis (obtusum apex), foliis infra papillatis (non pubescentibus).
Trees to 10 m tall. Branchlets terete, glabrous. Stipules intrapetiolar, oblong, 1.0– 1.3 mm long, with green resin, glabrous, acute to obtuse at apex, coriaceous, caducous. Petioles 0.2–0.7 cm long; leaf blades elliptic, 3–10 × 1–4 cm, acute at base, acute to weakly acuminate at apex, coriaceous, glabrous, papillate abaxially; secondary veins 8–11 pairs, glabrous, tertiary veins not prominent. Inflorescences lax cymes, up to 6 cm long, glabrous, branched to 2–3 orders; bracts irregularly developed, 1–5 mm long on lower nodes and absent to 1 mm long on more distal nodes; pedicels 1–2 mm long, glabrous. Flowers pedicellate; hypanthium obovoid, 2–3.5 mm long, glabrous; calyx cupuliform, limb 2–3.5 mm long, 5-dentate, glabrous to shortly pubescent, lobes 1.0– 1.3 mm, obtuse at apex; corolla campanulate, white, glabrous, tube ca. 2 mm long, lobes 5, 4– 5 mm long, obtuse; stamens 5, filaments 1.5–2 mm long; anthers 1.5–4 mm long; style 3–4 mm long; stigma shortly exserted, 3–4 mm long, bilobate, lobes linear, recurved. Capsules bilocular, spherical, 3–4 mm diam. Seeds ca. 1 mm long.
Distribution and habitat:— This species is found in the forests surrounding the San Francisco Scientific Station, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera of the Andes, southern Ecuador, at 2050–2070 m elevation.
Taxonomic notes: —The relatively small, coriaceous, abaxially papillate leaves in combination with the relatively large flowers (for Elaeagia) distinguish this new species within this genus. Elaeagia coriacea resembles E. ecuadorensis Steyerm. in having relatively large flowers and fruits; the latter differs from the former by its pilosulous (not abaxially papillate) leaf blades, and its larger (3 – 5 mm long), acuminate, calyx lobes.
Conservation status:— Elaeagia coriacea has a restricted distribution, only known from a few collections in the San Francisco Scientific Station, a small protected area in the southern part of Ecuador. In terms of our current knowledge, the species is assigned a provisional IUCN (2001) conservation status of endangered (EN) (IUCN SPWG 2010).
Additional specimens examined:— ECUADOR. Zamora-Chinchipe: San Francisco Scientific Station, road Loja-Zamora, ca. 30 km from Loja, 2050 m, 03º58’S, 79º04’W, 9 Mar 2000, J. Homeier & A. Scheffer 307 (MO, QCNE); ibid., 22 Oct 2001, D. Wolff 154 (MO); ibid., 2060 m, 17 Oct 2000, J. Homeier 546 (MO).
description: Published as part of Maldonado, Carla, Borchsenius, Finn & Taylor, Charlotte M., 2014, Elaeagia coriacea (Condamineeae, Rubiaceae), a new species from Ecuador, pp. 58-60 in Phytotaxa 184 (1) on pages 58-60, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.184.1.8, http://zenodo.org/record/5146488