Utricularia simulans Pilger (1914: 189)

Costa, Suzana M., Bittrich, Volker & Do Amaral, Maria Do Carmo E., 2016, Lentibulariaceae from the Viruá National Park in the northern Amazon, Roraima, Brazil, Phytotaxa 258 (1), pp. 1-25 : 20

19. Utricularia simulans Pilger (1914: 189) ( Fig. 6 : D–E)

Marsh herbs, up to 15 cm tall. Stolons and vegetative parts glabrous. Leaves (not seen). Traps lateral, dorsal appendage short and subulate, ventral appendage long and with bifid apex. Inflorescence erect, up to 5-flowered, flowers ca. 5 mm distant from each other. Peduncle greenish, reddish or brownish; lateral spongy floats absent. Sterile bracts up to 1 mm long, basifixed, auriculate, elliptic to ovate, apex fimbriate, more numerous at the base of the peduncle. Bract 1 × 1 mm, basifixed, auriculate to peltate, ovate, margin fimbriate. Bracteoles ca. 2 × 1 mm, basifixed, lanceolate, margin fimbriate; equal to bract and at or near the apex of the pedicel. Pedicels up to 1 mm long, shorter than the calyx lobes. Calyx lobes equal, margin fimbriate, without prominent nerves; lower lobe 4 × 3 mm, broadly ovate, apex retuse; upper lobe 3 × 3 mm, trullate, apex acute. Corolla yellow, sometimes with a reddish mark at the apex of the spur; upper lip 4 × 3 mm, ovate, apex rounded; lower lip 5 × 3 mm, broadly ovate, obscurely trilobed; spur ca. 4 × ca. 1.5 mm, conical, apex rounded, as long as or longer than the lower lip and not forming an angle of 90º with the latter in lateral view. Style and filaments short. Capsule globose, dehiscing by a longitudinal ventral slit. Seeds numerous, ovoid, surface reticulate.

Distribution:— Utricularia simulans occurs in tropical Africa and tropical and subtropical America ( Taylor 1989). In Brazil it is distributed in the northern, northeastern, central-western and southeastern regions ( Miranda et al. 2016). It grows in humid, generally sandy savannas ( Taylor 1989), and in VNP occurs in areas of grassy white-sand savannas.

Taxonomic notes:—According to Taylor (1989), the leaves are linear with an acute apex, uni-nerved, 0.5 mm wide. After drying, the peduncle turns blackish. We did not observe mature seeds, but Taylor (1989) illustrates them with oblong to elliptic testa cells. Utricularia simulans can be distinguished from other species with a fimbriate calyx ( U. longeciliata and U. sandwithii ) by the conic spur with rounded apex, bracteoles equal to the calyx lobes and flowers more or less congested at the apex of the inflorescence.

Specimens:— BRAZIL. Roraima, Caracaraí, Viruá National Park : PPBio grid L3 / N2, 13 September 2010, S. M. Costa 716, T.D. M. Barbosa ( INPA!, UEC!) ; “Estrada Perdida”, 25 January 2011, S. M. Costa 879, K. G. Cangani ( INPA!, UEC!) .

Figures

FIGURE 6. Utricularia sandwithii P.Taylor A–C. flower (front, lateral—inferior lip of corolla partially removed, note the spur—and posterior views). Utricularia simulans Pilg.—D. inflorescence (detail). E. flower (front view). Utricularia subulata L.—F. inflorescence (detail); G. flower (front view). Utricularia triloba Benj.—H. inflorescence (detail of herbarium specimen, note the nerves on calyx lobes); Utricularia viscosa Spruce ex Oliv—I. inflorescence (detail). J. peltate sterile bract. K. flower (posterior view). L. fruit.