Lobelia alanae, Pérez-Pérez & Ayers & Amith, 2022

Pérez-Pérez, Miguel A., Ayers, Tina J. & Amith, Jonathan D., 2022, A new species of Lobelia (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae) from the Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico, Phytotaxa 568 (1), pp. 1-7 : 2-5

Lobelia alanae sp. nov. M. A. Pérez-Pérez & T. J. Ayers (Figures 1–2)

Type:— MEXICO. Puebla. Municipality of Ayotoxco de Guerrero. Copales. In a site called Espinazo del Diablo , near the Apulco river , 153 m elevation, 20.09053°N, 97.45086°W. 20 September 2016, M. Jiménez-Chimil and M. Gorostiza-Salazar 31421 (holotype: US!, isotypes: HUAP, IEB!, K!, MEXU, MO!) .

Diagnosis:

Similar to Lobelia porphyrea , but with cauline leaves, a hemispheric hypanthium, calyx lobes with 1–2 pair of elongate, purple teeth at margins and one apical purple tooth and a spherical capsule 5–7 mm in diameter.

Perennial herb from a woody caudex. Stems erect, branched well above base or unbranched, to 80 cm high, greenish, hirtellous. Leaves cauline, alternate, subsessile or petiolate, petioles 2–22 mm long; blades ovate to ovatelanceolate, 3–11.5 cm long, 0.9–4.3 cm wide, abruptly reduced above; base long-attenuate; apex apiculate-acuminate; margins minutely serrulate or biserrate, with white callosities at tips of teeth; glabrous to hirtellous especially along veins abaxially and near margins. Inflorescence racemose, bracteate; bracts sessile, linear-lanceolate, 5–9 mm long, 0.4–1.5 mm wide; apex apiculate; margins continuous with extremely small wings on stem; margins serrate, tipped with purple, elongate, callose teeth. Flowers pedicellate; pedicels 0.6–1.4 cm long, bi-bracteolate at base; bracteoles 1–2 mm long with a prominent purple apical gland, hirtellous or ciliate; hypanthium hemispheric, ca. 1.2–2.0 mm long, 2.3–2.9 mm wide, hirtellous, prominently veined; calyx lobes subulate, the two laterals often curved upward and overlapping the dorsal lobe in flower, 1.3–2.5 mm long, 0.5–0.7 mm wide, with 1 purple apical callosity, and 1–2 pair of marginal elongate pubescent purple callosities near base or middle; corolla bilabiate, pink; tube cylindrical, 10–16 mm long, ca. 4 mm in diameter, slit dorsally except for ca. 3 mm at base, outer surface, hirtellous; limb bilabiate, bent upward ca. 45 degrees in bud; upper lobes oblong-spatulate, 3.3–4.3 mm long, 1.4–1.6 mm wide, acute, margins entire to irregularly undulate when dry, hirtellous along veins or glabrate; lower lobes obovate, 6.9–7.3 mm long, 3.3–4.5 mm wide, cuspidate, margins entire to irregularly undulate when dry, pink with a white patch at throat, hirtellous along veins or glabrate; stamens shorter than corolla tube; filaments white, free at base for 5–7 mm then connate into a tube ca. 4 mm long, the anthers blue-black, connate, 1.6–2.0 mm long, the three upper anthers covered with minute greyish hairs, the two lower anthers glabrous except for the numerous minute linear trichomes at apex; ovary bilocular, one-half inferior in flower, the style 10–12 mm long, the stigma lobes with minute whiteish hairsbelow. Capsule spherical, pendant on a reflexed pedicel, three-quarters or more inferior, 5–7 mm in diameter, strongly 10-veined, the veins persistent; seeds ca. 36, yellow to brown, ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm long, elongate-scabrate to reticulate-foveolate, shiny. Chromosome number: unknown.

Specimens examined: MEXICO. Puebla . Municipality of Jonotla, Xiloxochit. Densely wooded hillside above Apulco river at a site called “Isla” near El Porvenir, about 20 minute walk from the Copalco chapel. 176 m, 20.10131° N, 97.45608° W, 28 May 2015, Ceferino Salgado-Castañeda 2540 (HUAP, MEXU, US!). Municipality of Ayotoxco de Guerrero. Copales.At a site called Espinazo del Diablo , alongside the road to Atsalan, 177 m, 20.09024°N, 97.45182°W, 01 July 2016, M. Jiménez-Chimil and M. Gorostiza-Salazar 31381 (ASC!, HUAP, MEXU, MO, US). Veracruz, Municipality of Mecatlán , to the north of the municipality, near the location of the antennas, 663 m, 20.20633°N, 97.67272° W, 7 May 2017, Osbel López-Francisco and Ceferino Salgado-Castañeda 76078 (ASC!, HUAP, MEXU, US); Municipality of Coahuitlán , along the major road Coahuitlán-Crucero, at the entrance to the village of Coahuitlán, 701 m, 20.25681° N, 97.73054° W, 10 August 2017, Osbel López-Francisco and Ceferino Salgado-Castañeda 76237 (ASC!, MEXU, US) .

Etymology: This species is named in the honor of Alana Amith who assisted her father, Jonathan Amith, in his work on the “Comparative Mesoamerican Ethnobiology of the Sierra Norte de Puebla ”.

Habitat and conservation: Secondary Forest, tropical dry forest, and cloud forest. The primary botanical elements associated with Lobelia alanae are Bursera Jacquin ex Linnaeus (1762: 471) , Leucaena Bentham (1842: 416–417) , Ceratozamia Brongniart (1846: 7–8) , Saurauia Willdenow (1801: 407) , Inga Miller (1754: 498) , and Cecropia obtusifolia Bertoloni (1840: 141) . The Sierra Norte of Puebla is an important coffee region in Mexico. The coffee plantations are agroecosystems that include 256 native and 63 introduced species ( Martinez et al. 2007).

The type locality of L. alanae is at 153 meters elevation in a heavily shaded area about 20 meters above the Apulco river. The two other lowland collections (176 m) were also near the same river at a distance of 100 and 50 m. The two higher elevation collections in Veracruz (663 and 701 m) were not associated with a water way and, unlike the previous collections, they occurred in a relatively disturbed environment.

Lobelia alanae is distributed in two Mexican states (Figure 3). The field teams noted that L. alanea grew in colonies. According to the amplitude of the range represented by the species distribution (less than 5% of the Mexican territory), this taxon is categorized as very restricted ( SEMARNAT, 2010).