Erycibe brunneopilosa Kochaiph. &amp; Utteridge. A Habit 2021, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Kochaiphat, Phongsakorn
name: Traiperm, Paweena
name: Utteridge, Timothy M. A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Solanales
Convolvulaceae
Erycibe
Erycibe brunneopilosa

description: 3. <i>Erycibe brunneopilosa</i> Kochaiph. &amp; Utteridge <i>sp. nov.</i> (Figs. 1 and 4) <b>Type:—</b> MALAYSIA. Borneo: Sarawak, 5 th Division, along Sungai Masia in the Maligan Range, Lawas [4°37’42.0”N, 115°33’22.5”E], 3100 ft. [1030 m], 8 March 1973 (fl.), <i>Tong S.32819</i> (holotype K!; isotypes BO!, KEP!, L [L.2734271]!, SAN). Diagnosis:—Unique in the genus <i>Erycibe</i> for the combination of the climbing habit with all parts hairy, the leaves covered with stellate 5–8 branched hairs, the longest central hair branch up to 0.75 mm, the sepals densely hairy abaxially and fruits densely covered with red-brownish hairs up to 2 mm long. Climber up to 30 m; stems terete, young branches densely brownish stellate-hirsute with 6–8-branched hairs, mature stem nearly smooth, greyish, not lenticellate. Leaves simple, petioles 0.6–1.1 cm long, densely dark-brownish hairy; lamina coriaceous, elliptic, elliptic-oblong to lanceolate 4–17.5 × 1.7–6.5 cm, base obtuse, apex acuminate-caudate, margin entire, revolute, adaxially nearly glabrous, abaxially stellate-hirsute with 6–8-branched hairs, the longest central branch up to 0.75 mm long; midrib appressed adaxially, prominent abaxially; veins 5–10 on either side, inconspicuous adaxially, prominent abaxially; intercostal veins reticulate, inconspicuous adaxially, prominent abaxially. Inflorescences axillary, comprising short, 3–10-flowered glomerules, up to 1.5 cm long; floral bracts lanceolate, 1–3.5 mm long; pedicels very short, up to 1.5 mm long, densely stellate-hairy with 6–8-branched hairs, the longest central branch 0.3–0.7 mm long; sepals equal, deltate or ovate, 2.0–3.0 × 1.5–3.0 mm, densely stellate-hairy abaxially, glabrous adaxially, margin ciliate; corolla tube 1–1.5 mm, midpetaline bands densely stellate-hairy abaxially, longitudinal veins inconspicuous, lobule c. 2.5 × 1.5 mm, margin entire; stamens c. 2 mm long, filaments broader at the base, anthers yellowish when dry, c. 1.3 mm long, base cordate, apex acuminate; ovary (dry) ovoid, c. 1 × 1.5 mm, covered with hairs on upper half below stigma, stigma 5-ridged, c. 0.7 mm tall. Fruit a berry, ±ovoid, c. 1.8 × 2.4 cm, covered with red-brownish hairs up to 2 mm long. <b>Distribution:—</b> Endemic to Borneo and the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah. <b>Habitat:—</b> Climber reaching 100 ft [30 m] high on trees, on open hill slopes with sandy soil in mixed deciduous forest or lowland forest in logging areas; elevation 300–1030 m. <b>Preliminary conservation assessment:—</b> Endangered (EN) [B1a+b(iii, iv)] based on IUCN (2012) categories. It has an Extent of Occurrence (EOO) of 2,751 km 2 (&lt;5,000 km 2, fulfilling the B1 criterion), and is known to exist at no more than five locations. The estimated Area of Occupancy (AOO) for this species is 16 km 2 using a 2 km 2 grid base. The species has been collected in logging areas, and the quality of the habitat will decline in such areas with a projected decline in the number of locations, especially as the species has not been re-collected from the Bintulu location since 1972 and satellite imagery shows the effects of oil palm plantations and logging in that locality. <b>Phenology:—</b> Flowering in March, fruiting in September. <b>Etymology:—</b> The epithet is from the Latin, ‘brunneis’ and ‘pilosus’ referring to the brown hairs covering the plant, conspicuous <i>in vivo</i> and noted on all collecting labels, for example, ‘Twigs white, while young covered in brown hairs. Under-leaf surface covered in brown hairs. Flowers in bud, covered with brown hairs’ <i>(Tong S.32819</i>). <b>Notes:—</b> <i>Erycibe brunneopilosa</i> is unique in the genus for the combination of the brown hairs on all parts, the climbing habit, elliptic to lanceolate leaves, the axillary inflorescences with 3–10 flowers and especially the densely hairy fruits with hairs up to 2 mm long. This new species would key to <i>E. citriniflora</i> Griff. (Griffith 1854: 284) in Hoogland (1953a) based primarily on the acute anthers, hairy sepals, indumentum type and smooth branches. <i>Erycibe citriniflora</i> is a commonly encountered species in Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia but differs from <i>E. trichogyne</i> in the usually larger leaves 8–30 × 3–11 cm and the glabrous or sparsely appressed-hairy fruit. <i>Erycibe brunneopilosa</i> is also similar to <i>E. magnifica</i> Prain (1904: 18), endemic to Peninsular Malaysia, in the climbing habit, densely hairy leaves and fruit, but differs in the stellate-hirsute adaxial leaf surface with appressed midribs, while <i>E. magnifica</i> has a stellate-villous adaxial leaf surface with strongly sunken midribs. In addition, Hoogland (1953c) uses the thick clubshaped corolla lobules of <i>E. magnifica</i> as a key character, but the corolla lobules of <i>E. brunneopilosa</i> are much thinner and not club-shaped. This newly described species is one of the <i>Erycibe</i> species with dense hairs on the fruit. In Borneo, it is only likely to be confused with the climbing taxa with hairy fruits <i>E. grandifolia</i> Merr. ex Hoogland (1953a: 313) and <i>E. villosa</i>. <i>Erycibe brunneopilosa</i> differs from <i>E. grandifolia</i> in the short (up to 1.5 cm long) axillary inflorescences (terminal to 20 cm long in <i>E. grandifolia</i>) and the fruits with simple hairs to 2 mm long (rather than very short stellate hairs on the fruit of <i>E. grandifolia</i>); it differs from <i>E. villosa</i> in the lamina morphology (elliptic, elliptic-oblong to lanceolate, 4–17.5 cm long and with scattered hairs below not obscuring the lamina surface versus obovate to elliptic, 8–11.5 cm long and with the abaxial lamina densely covered with persistent woolly hairs in <i>E. villosa</i>) and the much shorter hairs on the fruit, up to 2 mm long whereas they are c. 6 mm long in <i>E. villosa</i>. <i>Erycibe brunneopilosa</i> is also very similar to <i>E. trichocarpa</i> by its leaf morphology and the hairs on the stems and fruits, but <i>E. trichocarpa</i> differs in the tree habit and also has shorter hairs on the vegetative parts, only 0.15–0.4 mm long, while the hairs in <i>E. brunneopilosa</i> are up to 0.75 mm long. The specimens <i>Tong S.32819</i> and <i>Gibot SAN 72913</i> were cited as possibly similar to the putative, and yet to be formally described, taxon ‘ <i>Erycibe</i> sp. A’ in Staples &amp; Syahida-Emiza’s (2015) treatment of the genus in Peninsular Malaysia, but the ovary indumentum (glabrous distally) differs from <i>E. brunneopilosa</i>. <i>Chai S.32133</i> was initially distributed as Annonaceae and <i>Gibot SAN 72913</i> was initially determined as <i>Sarcostigma</i> sp. (Icacinaceae). <b>Additional specimens examined:—</b> <b>MALAYSIA. Borneo: Sarawak</b>, Bintulu, Segan Forest Reserve [3°04’30.0”N, 113°01’19.8”E], 19 Sep 1972 (fr.), <i>Chai S</i> <i>.</i> <i>32133</i> (CANB, K!, L-digital image!, SAN, SING); <b>Sabah</b>, G. Lumaku, 4°53’ N 115°45’E, 300 m., 6 March 1969 (fl.), <i>Nooteboom 1143</i> (K!, KEP!, L-digital image!); Sipitang, 5 miles [8 km] from Kampung Modolong to Kampung Maligan [4°41’15.3”N, 115°42’01.0”E], 7 September 1983 (fr.), <i>Gibot SAN 72913</i> (K!, KEP!, L-digital image!, SAR). <b>Vernacular:—</b> Iban (Sarawak): Akar rarak (<i>fide Chai S.32133</i>).
description: Published as part of <i>Kochaiphat, Phongsakorn, Traiperm, Paweena &amp; Utteridge, Timothy M. A., 2021, Three new species of Erycibe (Convolvulaceae) from Malesia, pp. 103-112 in Phytotaxa 494 (1)</i> on pages 108-109, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.494.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/5423344
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