Cryptantha pondii , Johnston 1928
Creators: name: Simpson, Michael G.
name: Rebman, Jon P.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Boraginales
Boraginaceae
Cryptantha
Cryptantha pondii

description: Affinities of Cryptantha pondii   
 The relationships of Cryptantha pondii within the genus are not clear, especially because the species was not correctly recognized by most botanists. Johnston (1928: 75) stated that “The species is a very distinct one of uncertain affinities. It is probably best placed in a special Series between Graciles and Ramulossimae.” Series Graciles of Johnston (1925) solely included the species Cryptantha gracilis Osterhout (1903: 236). However, this species differs from C. pondii in lacking bracts, having a distinctive calyx with a conical base and numerous, fine, whitish hirsute trichomes, and in having one nutlet per fruit, the nutlet smooth but characteristically trigonous in cross-section. Cryptantha gracilis is centered in the Great Basin region of the United States and east into the Rocky Mountains (Kartesz 2015). Johnston’s series Ramulossimae solely included the species Cryptantha fendleri (A. Gray 1885:268) Greene (1887: 120), distinctive in having virgate lateral branches and a fruit with four smooth nutlets, thus more like C. pondii. However, the calyces of C. fendleri are more like a typical Cryptantha, hispid along the midrib and appressed hirsute along the margin.Also, C. fendleri either lacks bracts or they are sparse on the plant, unlike C. pondii. Cryptantha fendleri, like C. gracilis, occurs mainly in the Great Basin and east into the Rocky Mountains of the United States. Neither C. gracilis nor C. fendleri occur in Mexico (Rebman et al. 2016, Villaseñor 2016).   
 We think that Cryptantha pondii is likely a close relative of C. maritima. In general habit, the two species are quite similar. Aside from the type, all vouchers (if determined beyond genus) were originally identified as either Cryptantha maritima or as C. maritima var. cedrosensis. Cryptantha pondii resembles C. maritima in having linear, pustulate bracts at the base of the cymules and scattered among the flowers. It is especially similar to C. m. var. vizcainensis in having a solely strigose stem vestiture, is similar to C. m. var. cedrosensis in having four ovules and four nutlets that are heteromorphic (by size alone in C. pondii) with the odd nutlet axial (nearest the inflorescence axis, as opposed to away from it), and is similar to both varieties in having relatively large corollas. It differs from all C. maritima varieties in lacking “rough” (minutely tuberculate) nutlets, but we note that C. maritima specimens will sometimes have a single nutlet; when so, it is smooth. In addition, the similar geographic range of Cryptantha pondii (Fig. 7) and C. maritima var. vizcainensis (Fig. 2) may be indicative of a common evolutionary origin. We considered, but rejected, the taxonomic treatment of C. pondii as a variety of C. maritima because we have no clear evidence of relationships between the two species. Future molecular phylogenetic studies should clarify the interrelationships among these taxa.
description: Published as part of Simpson, Michael G. & Rebman, Jon P., 2021, Research in Boraginaceae: A new variety of Cryptantha maritima, Cryptantha pondii resurrected, and Johnstonella echinosepala transferred back to Cryptantha, pp. 185-210 in Phytotaxa 509 (2) on pages 196-198, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.509.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/5426136