Lycianthes talamancensis E. Dean & J. Poore
Creators: name: Dean, Ellen
name: Poore, Jennifer
name: Kang, Hannah
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Solanales
Solanaceae
Lycianthes
Lycianthes talamancensis

description: Lycianthes talamancensis E. Dean & J. Poore (Fig. 5).
— Type: PANAMA. Bocas del Toro: Cordillera de Talamanca, 2–5 airline km NW of the peak of Cerro Echandi on the Costa Rican-Panamanian international border. 9°04’N, 82°51’W [9.0667, -82.8500], 1 and 9 Mar 1984, G. Davidse 25487 (holotype: MO acc. # 3661181; isotype: MO acc. #6866840)
Diagnosis. Endemic to Panama; closely related to Lycianthes hortulana of Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua but differing in having much longer pedicels, 15–22 mm long in flower and 27–35 mm long in fruit (rather than 3–9 mm long in flower and 5–13 mm long in fruit), an entire corolla that is moderately pubescent on the adaxial lobes (rather than shallowly stellate corolla with glabrous adaxial lobes), and longer stamen filaments, 1–2 mm long (rather than 0.5 mm long).
Climbing vine or liana (height not given on any of the specimens). Indument of tan to yellow-orange, uniseriate, multicellular, usually long-stalked, eglandular, multangulate-stellate, spreading trichomes, the primary rays usually 3–6 per whorl, often rebranched, Stems green to light brown when young, slightly to not compressed upon drying, becoming woody with age, densely pubescent with trichomes 0.2–0.5 mm long, 0.5–1.0 mm in diameter; upper sympodial branching points dichasial or monochasial, the branching widely divaricate, the segments shallowly zigzagging to twining, the upper sympodial stem units 2.5–11.3 cm long, 2–4 mm in diameter. Leaves of upper sympodia simple, rarely geminate, the smaller leaf of the pair sometimes not developing, or abscising early, the larger ones with blades 4.5–14 × 3.0– 8.6 cm, the smaller ones with blades 3.5–7.7 × 2.1–4.3 cm, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate to elliptic, chartaceous, moderately to densely pubescent with trichomes similar to the stem but sessile to short stalked, the pubescence usually denser on the abaxial side of the blade, the primary veins 3–5 on each side of the midvein, the base rounded to truncate, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually irregularly undulate, the apex acute to acuminate, the petioles 0.6–3.9 cm long. Flowers in groups of 1–6 (10), axillary, the inflorescence axes densely pubescent with spreading trichomes like that of the stem; peduncles absent; pedicels 15–22 mm long and erect to arching in flower, to 27–35 mm and erect to arching in fruit; calyx 2.5–4 mm long, 4–5 mm in diameter, campanulate, moderately to densely pubescent with spreading trichomes like those of the stem to 0.7 mm in diameter, the margin truncate, the 10 appendages 0.75–3 mm long emerging 0.5–1.0 mm below the prominent, scarious calyx rim; fruiting calyx enlarged, bowl-shaped to rotate, 2–4.5 mm long, 5–9 mm in diameter, the appendages to 4 mm; corolla oriented horizontally, 1–1.8 cm long, campanulate (or not fully open on specimens), entire, with abundant interpetalar tissue, adaxially light violet to purple with center of lobes darker and moderately puberulent, abaxially moderately puberulent on the lobes especially at the distal end, this more evident in bud; stamens equal, the filaments 1–2 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 4–4.5 mm long, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, free from one another, yellow, sparsely pubescent on the inner face, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, terminal, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 6–8 mm long, linear, straight to curved, glabrous; stigma truncate, slightly bilobed. Fruit a berry, 7–9 mm long, 6–9 mm in diameter, usually globose to depressed globose, green when immature, color unknown, glabrous to very slightly pubescent, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 30–35 per fruit, 3–3.5 × 2.2–2.5 mm, flattened, usually reniform with 0.5–1.0 mm notch on one side, depressed ovate in outline, yellow to orange-brown, the seed margin rougher texture and of similar or lighter color, the surface reticulum with faint pattern formed by densely arranged cells with wavy cell walls and shallow lumina.
Distribution and habitat: — Lycianthes talamancesis is endemic to Panama in Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí provinces (Fig. 6), growing in cloud forest and wet forest, with Quercus, Podocarpus, Magnolia, Symplocos, and Chusquea understory, 2200–2850 m in elevation.
Phenology:— Flowering specimens have been collected January through March; specimens with nearly mature fruits (still green, but seeds nearly mature) have been collected January through March.
Etymology:— This species is named after the Cordillera de Talamanca where Senior Missouri Botanical Garden Botanist Gerrit Davidse collected the type specimen.
Notes:— Lycianthes talamancensis is closely related to L. hortulana, originally described from the cloud forests of Honduras, and L. breedlovei, which occurs in the cloud forests of Chiapas, Mexico. All three species are densely pubescent with stalked, multangulate-stellate trichomes with rebranched rays, have widely divaricate branching, and have seeds that are usually notched on one side (Table 3). Lycianthes talamancensis differs from the other two species in having longer pedicels, 15–22 mm long in flower, 27–35 mm long in fruit (rather than to 9 mm in flower and 13 mm in fruit in L. hortulana and to 16 mm long in flower and 25 mm long in fruit in L. breedlovei) and entire corollas that are moderately pubescent on the adaxial side (rather than stellate corollas that are glabrous or nearly so in the other two species). We also compared this new species to the common L. multiflora, which also occurs in Panama; it differs from this species in trichome type and many other features (Table 3).
Representative specimens examined (paratypes):— PANAMA. Bocas del Toro: Cordillera de Talamanca, 6 airline km NW of the peak of Cerro Echandi on the Costa Rican-Panamanian international border, 9°05’N, 82°50’30”W [9.0833, -82.8417], 2450–2600 m, 2–3 Mar 1984, G. Davidse 25167 (DAV acc. # 230775, MO acc. # 6866842, MO acc. # 3661184, MO acc. # 6866841); Chiriquí: Distrito Bugada, Cerro Punta, from STRI house to nearby ridge. [8.86, -82.55], 2200 m, 25 Jan 1984, H. Van der Werff 6366 (MO acc. # 3661117); Distrito Bugada, Cerro Punta, along ridge to watershed to Bocas del Toro, 8°52’N, 82°33’W [8.8667,-82.55], 2200 m, 26 Jan 1984, H. Van der Werff 6485 (MEXU acc. # 1356972).
description: Published as part of Dean, Ellen, Poore, Jennifer & Kang, Hannah, 2020, Three new species of Lycianthes (Solanaceae) from Panama, pp. 113-126 in Phytotaxa 471 (2) on pages 122-124, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.471.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/4784553