Pitcairnia queroana Espejo & López-Ferr., 2015

Espejo-Serna, Adolfo & López-Ferrari, Ana Rosa, 2015, Pitcairnia queroana (Pitcairnioideae, Bromeliaceae), a striking new species from Chiapas state, Mexico, Phytotaxa 230 (3), pp. 287-292 : 288-291

Pitcairnia queroana Espejo & López-Ferr. , spec. nov. ( Fig. 1 )

This new species is characterized by the following set of characters: monomorphic petiolate persistent leaves; simple, densely lanate-tomentose inflorescence, with 60–100 pedicellate flowers; floral bracts not imbricate but divaricate at anthesis; pedicels slender; purplish-green sepals, and yellow petals with a basal appendage.

Type:— MEXICO. Chiapas: municipio de Ángel Albino Corzo (Jaltenango), reserva de la biosfera El Triunfo, aproximadamente 1 km antes del campamento El Triunfo, 15° 40’ 11.5” N, 92° 47’ 47” W, 1850 m, bosque tropical subperennifolio, 30 March 2007, J. Martínez Meléndez 1818 (holotype: MEXU 1398883!, isotype: HEM 21837(×3)!).

Plant saxicolous, acaulescent, with underground erect rhizomes, flowering 75–120 cm tall, rosettes slightly bulbous at the base. Roots fibrous, thin. Leaves few, rosulate, monomorphic, petiolate, margins in all parts entire; sheaths narrowly triangular to ovate, 4.5–9 cm long, 2.5–3 cm wide at the base, light brown to straw-colored, conspicuously veined, densely white-lanate-tomentose abaxially; petiole 20–30 cm long, 2–3 mm width, involute; blades green, abaxially with a very distinct paler central thickened vein, linear, 90–125 cm long, 2–5 cm wide at its widest part, glabrous on both surfaces, attenuate towards the apical portion. Inflorescence terminal, simple, erect, racemose, polystichous, densely white-lanate-tomentose, including the sepals; peduncle erect, terete, 70–77 cm long, 0.8–1 cm in diam. at the base; peduncle bracts green to light brown, papyraceous, erect, appressed, triangular-lanceolate, 6.5–30 cm long, 1.5– 2 cm wide at the base, entire, acuminate, densely white-lanate-tomentose abaxially, becoming progressively reduced distally; raceme terete, 30–40 cm long, 5–7 cm in diam., rachis wholly visible; floral bracts chartaceous, light brown to straw-colored, divaricate, narrowly triangular to lanceolate, 23–30 mm long, 5–8 mm wide, longer than the pedicels, acuminate, densely white-lanate-tomentose abaxially. Flowers 60–100 per inflorescence, densely disposed, not secund, zygomorphic, pedicellate; pedicel slender, 15–17 mm long, ca. 1 mm diam.; sepals free, narrowly triangular, ecarinate, purple at the base, green at the apex, apiculate, 17–18 mm long, 5–5.5 mm wide; petals free, yellow, oblong-spatulate, 40–46 mm long, 9–11 mm wide, rounded, with a basal, oblong, ca. 6 mm long, ca. 3 mm wide, erose appendage almost wholly adnate to the petal; stamens all equal in length, shorter than petals, filaments white, filiform, 30–33 mm long; anthers yellow, linear, 7–8 mm long, basifixed; ovary half superior, ovoid, green, trigonous, ca. 6 mm long, ca. 5 mm in diam.; style linear, ca. 35 mm long; stigma yellow, conduplicate-spiral (type II sensu Brown & Gilmartin, 1984). Capsules dark brown, ovoid, trigonous, 8–11 mm long, 5–6 mm in diam. at the base; seeds reddish to light-brown, fusiform, long bicaudate, ca. 5 mm long.

Etymology:—The specific epithet honors Dr. Hermilo Jorge Quero Rico (1941–2015), teacher, colleague and friend who dedicated his life to the study of Mexican palms.

Distribution and Habitat:— Pitcairnia queroana is known until now only from the state of Chiapas, in the municipality of Ángel Albino Corzo. It grows in the biosphere reserve El Triunfo, near the main camp of the reserve, on rocks in cloud forests at an elevation interval from 1500–1850 m a.s.l.

Additional specimens examined (paratypes):— MEXICO. Chiapas: municipio de Ángel Albino Corzo, reserva de la biosfera El Triunfo, mirador Santa Rita, sendero Prusia , 15°40’5”N, 92°47’43.8” W, 1771 m, bosque de coníferas, 30 april 2007, H. Gómez-Domínguez 1778 ( HEM 23074 (×2)!) ; municipio de Ángel Albino Corzo [Jaltenango], El Triunfo Reserve , trail from El Triunfo Camp to Finca Prusia, c. halfway between camp and reserve, 15°41’N, 92°48’W, 1500 m, cloud forest, R. J. Hampshire, P. J. Stafford, A. Reyes García, M. Heath & A. Long 809 ( MA 540348 !, MO 3999785 !) .

Comments:—The new taxon belongs to the subgenus Pitcairnia ( Smith & Downs, 1974) because the seeds are long bicaudate. P. queroana has a set of features that clearly distinguish it from any other Mexican and Central American species of the genus. The only known population of P. queroana grows in Polygon I of the Biosphere Reserve El Triunfo. This reserve is located in the mountains of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, just with the northern limits of the Soconusco region. Five core areas or “polygons” totaling 30 000 hectares have been identified for key protection, with the intention that the forests remain intact and free from human disturbance. Polygon I, the most accessible and large of the five polygons, has an extension of 10 000 hectares. Only the I, III, and V core areas have been studied floristically ( Long & Heath, 1991; Martínez-Meléndez et al., 2008; Pérez-Farrera et al., 2012). The species of Pitcairnia cited for these areas are P. heterophylla ( Lindley 1840: t. 71) Beer (1857: 68), P. imbricta ( Brongniart 1841: 369) Regel (1868: 135 , t. 579), P. wendlandii Baker (1881: 306) and P. saxicola Smith (1937: 29) . The last one listed as Pitcairnia sp. CAPB70 (in Martínez-Meléndez et al., 2008).

As far as we know, the plants of P. queroana are not used by the inhabitants of the region, so we think that the species has not immediate human pressure, however, and due to the lack of detailed information about the precise distribution of the species we suggest to include it in the Data Deficient (DD) category of the UICN (2003).

Pitcairnia queroana superficially resembles P. sulphurea Andrews (1802 : t. 249) but differs from it by the presence of long petioles, 20–30 cm long (vs. absent or the blade shortly contracted toward the base in P. sulphurea ), its longer inflorescence with more than 60 flowers (vs. <50), the purple calyx (vs. green to yellow-green), and the conspicuous and dense white-lanate-tomentose indument (vs. glabrous to sparsely floccose), that covers all the inflorescence. Moreover, P. sulphurea is endemic from St. Vincent in the Windward Islands, Lesser Antilles.

In the Flora Neotropica ( Smith & Downs, 1974) and Flora Mesoamericana ( Utley & Burt-Utley, 1994), P. queroana keys out into the group of P. recurvata ( Scheidweiler 1842: 275) Koch (1858 : app. 4) and P. brachysperma André (1888: 13), but the new taxon differs from these two species by the characters showed in table 1.

Key to the species of Pitcairnia present in Chiapas

1. Leaf-blades deciduous along a basal transverse dehiscence line, not petiolate.................................................................................2

- Leaf-blades persistent, without a conspicuous basal transverse dehiscence line, often petiolate......................................................4

2. Peduncle very short or absent; petals with internal basal appendages ......................................................................... P. heterophylla

- Peduncle elongate, conspicuous; petals without internal basal appendages......................................................................................3

3. Sepals 4–4.5 cm long.......................................................................................................................................................... P. saxicola

- Sepals 2–3 cm long.......................................................................................................................................................... P. calderonii

4. Petioles absent or if present less than 10 cm long..............................................................................................................................5

- Petioles present, over 10 cm long.......................................................................................................................................................8

5. Petals red; leaves arranged in a rosette appressed to the substrate; inflorescence dense, strobiliform, the rachis not visible............. ...................................................................................................................................................................................... P. tabuliformis

- Petals white, yellowish-green or rose; leaves arranged in erect, never appressed rosettes; inflorescence lax, the rachis conspicuous.......................................................................................................................................................................................................6

6. Flowers conspicuously secund; corolla white .............................................................................................................. P. secundiflora

- Flowers not secund; corolla yellow to yellowish-green or rose.........................................................................................................7

7. Petals yellowish-green, 4–4.5 cm long; the keel of the adaxial sepals undulate, ca. 2 mm wide at its widest part........ P. breedlovei

- Petals rose, 3.5–4.1 cm long; the keel of the adaxial sepals straight, ca. 1 mm wide at its widest part........................... P. mirandae

8. Floral bracts imbricate, erect, appressed; rachis completely covered by the floral bracts.................................................................9

- Floral bracts not imbricate, divaricate to ascendent; rachis visible, not covered by the floral bracts..............................................12

9. Leaf margins entire...........................................................................................................................................................................10

- Leaf margins serrate, at least on the base of the blade or the petiole...............................................................................................11

10. Petals white; sepals ca. 4 cm long ..................................................................................................................................... P. carioana

- Petals yellow to yellowish-green; sepals 2–3 cm long................................................................................................... P. wendlandii

11. Inflorescence, including peduncle, 35–60 cm long; floral bracts 5–7 cm long, chartaceous, with the apex erect, appressed............. .......................................................................................................................................................................................... P. imbricata

- Inflorescence, including peduncle, 13–15 cm long; floral bracts ca. 4.5 cm long, membranaceous, with the apex divaricate to ascendant................................................................................................................................................................................ P. matudae

12. Floral bracts less than 2 cm long......................................................................................................................................................13

- Floral bracts over 2 cm long.............................................................................................................................................................15

13. Leaf-blades 10–15 cm wide; petals red, 3.5–5.5 cm long.................................................................................................. P. undulata

- Leaf-blades 6–7 cm wide; petals yellow, 4–7 cm long....................................................................................................................14

14. Sepals red, 2.5–2.8 cm long; petals ca. 7 cm long............................................................................................................. P. ocotensis

- Sepals yellow, 1.7–2 cm long; petals 4–5 cm long.......................................................................................................... P. chiapensis

15. Petals without internal basal appendage(s)........................................................................................................................ P. carioana

- Petals with internal basal appendage(s)............................................................................................................................................16

16. Corolla white to yellowish-white; pedicels stout; floral bracts erect, 3–4.5 × 1.5–2 cm; petals 10–11 cm long; inflorescence glabrous to sparsely floccose................................................................................................................................................. P. recurvata

- Corolla yellow; pedicels slender; floral bracts divaricate, 2.3–3 × 0.5–0.8 cm; petals 4–4.6 cm long; inflorescence densely white-lanate-tomentose................................................................................................................................................................ P. queroana

Figures

FIGURE 1. Holotype of Pitcairnia queroana Espejo & López-Ferr.