Lycianthes breedlovei E. Dean, 2019

Dean, Ellen, Archila, Fredy, Poore, Jennifer, Kang, Hannah, Constante, Marco Antonio Anguiano-, Starbuck, Thomas & Rodriguez, Annamarie, 2019, Two new species of Lycianthes (Capsiceae, Solanaceae) from Mexico and Guatemala, Phytotaxa 409 (5), pp. 261-272 : 265-266

Lycianthes breedlovei E. Dean , sp. nov. ( Figs. 2A , 3 )

Type: — MEXICO. Chiapas: Mpio. La Independencia, third ridge along logging road from Las Margaritas to Campo Alegre , [16.4756, -91.8234], 2300 m, 6 May 1973, D. E. Breedlove 34793 (holotype: CAS barcode 480622; isotypes: LL barcode 00226970, MEXU acc. # 247663, MO acc. # 2602916) .

Diagnosis. Scandent shrub to vine, endemic to Mexico, very similar to Lycianthes hortulana of Honduras, but differing in longer pedicels (9–16 mm in flower), larger corollas (0.9–1.5 cm long), and unequal stamens.

Scandent shrub to vine, 2–3.5 (5) m tall (perhaps taller, if a vine). Indument orange to pale yellow (yellow-grey), uniseriate, multicellular, stalked, spreading, multangulate-stellate trichomes with three to five primary rays, these often bearing another set of two to three stellate rays, and these often further rebranched. Stems pale green (drying tan) when young, terete in cross section, becoming brown and woody with age, moderately to densely pubescent with trichomes 0.25–1.5 (2) mm long, glabrate with age; upper branching a mixture of dichasial and monochasial, the branching divaricate (diverging at wide angles), the upper sympodial units 1–10 cm long, 1.5–4 mm in diameter. Leaves of upper sympodia simple, sometimes paired and unequal in size, the larger ones with blades 3.5–10 × 1.5–4.5 cm, the smaller ones with blades 1–3.5 × 0.5–2 cm, the leaf pairs similar in shape, the blades ovate, elliptic, or obovate, chartaceous, sparsely to moderately pubescent with spreading trichomes similar to the stem, both sides of the leaves with similar pubescence, denser on the abaxial side, the primary veins 4–6 on each side of the midvein, the base cuneate to rounded, sometimes oblique, the margin entire, usually irregularly undulate, the apex acute to acuminate, the petioles 0.3–1 cm long. Flowers in groups of 1–5, axillary, the inflorescence axes densely pubescent with spreading trichomes 0.25–1 mm long; peduncles absent; pedicels 9–16 mm long and erect in flower, 10–25 mm long and erect in fruit; calyx 2.5–3.5 mm long, 3.5–4.5 mm in diameter, campanulate, pale green (sometimes nearly translucent), with dark ribs, the margin truncate, the 10 spreading linear appendages 1–3 mm long, emerging ca. 0.5 mm below calyx margin, sparsely to densely puberulent with spreading trichomes 0.1–1 mm long; fruiting calyx enlarged, widely bowl-shaped to rotate, 2–3 mm long, 6–8 mm in diameter, the teeth to 5 mm long; corolla oriented horizontally, 0.9–1.5 cm long, shallowly stellate (lobed one quarter to halfway to the base), with abundant white to lilac interpetalar tissue, the adaxial side of the corolla lobes dark violet to purple with a few scattered trichomes, three of the lobes with a green area at their base, the abaxial side of the lobes usually densely puberulent with short yellow trichomes (best seen in bud); stamens slightly unequal, the four short filaments 0.5–1 mm long, the one long filament 1–2 mm long, glabrous, the anthers 3–4 mm long, elliptic, yellow, sometimes with small trichomes on the inner face along the connective, poricidal at the tips, the pores ovate, dehiscing distally, not opening into longitudinal slits; pistil with glabrous ovary, the style 6–8 mm long, linear, straight to curved, glabrous, the stigma capitate to oblong, decurrent down the sides. Fruit a berry, 4–10 mm long, 5–11 mm diameter, depressed globose, orange when mature, glabrous, lacking sclerotic granules. Seeds 5–30 per fruit, 3–3.5 × 2–2.5 mm, flattened, thickened on edges, usually reniform with small notch on one side, circular or depressed ovate in outline, orange-brown, surface reticulate, the closely arranged cells with serpentine-shaped walls and shallow lumina, the margin thickened and rougher in texture than the center.

Comments: — Lycianthes breedlovei is a cloud forest shrub to vine with zigzag branching due to widely divaricate branching angles, yellow to orange, multangulate-stellate trichomes with the rays rebranched, white to pale lilac flowers with violet to purple lobes, and unequal stamens. It is closely related to L. hortulana , described from Honduras. The two species are isolated from one another, with no populations of either species known to occur in Guatemala. They have diverged from one another in pedicel length, corolla size, and stamen length ( Table 1). Lycianthes breedlovei has been most commonly misidentified as L. cuchumatanensis , and those misidentifications are the basis for reports of L. cuchumatanensis occurring in Mexico ( Villaseñor, 2016). Lycianthes breedlovei differs from L. cuchumatanensis in trichome type (multangulate stellate (often rebranched) in L. breedlovei and geminate stellate in L. cuchumatanensis ), corolla shape (shallowly stellate in L. breedlovei and deeply stellate in L. cuchumatenensis ), and stamen length (unequal filaments in L. breedlovei and equal filaments in L. cuchumatenensis ) ( Table 1).

Range and habitat: — Lycianthes breedlovei is endemic to the Mexican state of Chiapas ( Fig. 4 ). It grows in cloud forest, often in oak forest, sometimes associated with Pinus , Abies , Magnolia , or Podocarpus , sometimes near disturbed areas, such as milpas, from 2000–3000 m in elevation.

Conservation status: — Lycianthes breedlovei is known to occur in eight municipios in the state of Chiapas; we examined a total of 24 collections made at 19 different locations, only one of which is within a protected reserve. The preferred habitat of this species is cloud forest, a habitat that has been declining in area in Chiapas, and most areas of the world, over the past few decades; in 2006, it was estimated that cloud forest occupied approximately 1.4 percent of the land area of the Central Highlands of Chiapas, and much of this was highly fragmented ( Cayuela et al. 2006). As many of the collections we examined were collected over 25 years ago, and the one plant we were able to locate in 2017 was infertile, it is likely that at least some of the populations of this species have been extirpated. Using GeoCAT ( Bachman et al., 2011) and based on the number of localities, the Extent of Occurrence (EOO) is 2,592.2 km 2. In contrast the size of the Area of Occupancy (AOO) is 76 km 2, based on cells of 2 km. A preliminary category of endangered (EN (B2 b i,ii)) is proposed following the IUCN (2012) criteria.

Phenology: — Flowering specimens have been collected from April through July; fruiting specimens have been collected from August to November.

Indigenous names: — Chichol mut (Tzeltal) from specimen C. Santíz R. 854; Tunatzak (Tzeltal) from specimen A. Médez Ton 5054; Penko antivo (Tzotzil) from specimen C. Santíz R. 904.

Etymology: — This species is named for Dennis Breedlove (1939–2012), whose collections over several decades have greatly increased our knowledge of the Chiapan flora. In the early 1990s, he tried to convince me to study this beautiful species, which he tentatively called Lycianthes cuchumatanensis . Unfortunately, since he passed away in 2012, he won’t be able to see that I finally found the time to examine the type specimens of L. cuchumatanensis and unravel this mystery.

Additional specimens examined (paratypes): — MEXICO. Chiapas: Mpio. San Cristóbal de las Casas, near summit of Hueitepec near Las Casas, [16.7506, -92.6735], 22 Apr 1945, E. J. Alexander 1212 ( MEXU acc. # 54219, NY) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, in Colonia ‘ Ach’lum, [16.7753, -92.4467], 9100 ft, 23 Aug 1966, D. E. Breedlove 15206 ( NY) ; Mpio. Jitotol, about 7 miles north of Jitotol along a side road to an oil well, [17.1417, -92.8842], 6700 ft, 28 Aug 1966, D. E. Breedlove 15412 ( DUKE acc. # 206965) ; Mpio. San Andrés Larrainzar, near the summit of Chuchil Ton, northeast of Bochil [16.9958, -92.8932], 2700 m, 3 Aug 1972, D. E. Breedlove 26811 ( MO acc. # 2310584) ; Mpio. La Independencia , third ridge along logging road from Las Margaritas to Campo Alegre, [16.4756, -91.8234], 2300 m, 18 Feb 1973, D. E. Breedlove 33583 ( CAS barcode 480626) ; Mpio. La Independencia , third ridge along logging road from Las Margaritas to Campo Alegre, [16.4756, -91.8234], 2300 m, 6 May 1973, D. E. Breedlove 34793 ( CAS barcode 480622, MEXU acc. # 247663, LL barcode 00226970) ; Mpio. La Independencia , third ridge along logging road from Las Margaritas to Campo Alegre, [16.4756, -91.8234], 2300 m, 24 Oct 1976, D. E. Breedlove 41074 ( CAS barcode 480617, MEXU acc. # 247329, MO acc. # 2607715) ; Mpio. La Independencia , third ridge along logging road from Las Margaritas to Campo Alegre, [16.4756, -91.8234], 2300 m, 3 Jul 1981, D. E. Breedlove 51326 ( CAS barcode 480625, MEXU acc. # 393514, MO acc. # 3491151) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, near Paraje Banabil, [16.7803, -92.5108], 2713 m, 8 Oct 1981, D. E. Breedlove 53375 ( LL barcode 00226943) ; Mpio. La Independencia, 6–10 km northeast of La Soledad along logging road from Las Margaritas to Campo Alegre, [16.42, -91.85], 1600, 19 Nov 1981, D. E. Breedlove 55673 ( CAS barcode 480615, NY) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, 25 km al noreste de San Cristóbal de las Casas, sobre el camino a Matzala [16.7365, -92.4239], 2350 m, 25 Nov 1982, E. Cabrera C. 3800 ( MEXU acc. # 418965, MO acc. # 3332742, NY) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, 3 Km al oeste de la carretera San Cristóbal de Las Casas-Tenejapa , sobre el camino a Matzala [16.758936, -92.58676], 29 Sep 1983, E. Cabrera C. 5757 ( MEXU acc. # 604711) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, along the road to the town of Matzam, ca. 1.5 km from the eastern outskirts of the town of Las Ollas, 16.78323, -92.52748, 2484 m, 13 Sep 2017, E. Dean 9531 ( DAV acc. # 226596) ; Mpio. San Cristóbal de las Casas, Estación Biológica Huitepec- PRONATURA, [16.7471, -92.6826], 2550 m, 3 Jun 1991, M. González-Espinosa 1489 ( MEXU acc. # 564074) ; Mpio. Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán, Clínica La Yerbabuena [17.1830, -92.900], 2100 m, 23 Oct 1989, M. Heath 2062 ( MEXU acc. # 951792) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, 22 Km from San Cristóbal de las Casas on the road to Tenejapa, then right 3 Km on the road to Matzam, [16.7988, -92.4728], 2400 m, 29 Sep 1984, M. J. Huft 2195 ( MEXU acc. # 604535) ; Mpio. Huixtán, Rancho Merced Bazom, 16.7014, -92.6097, 2450 m, 2 Jul 1994, M. Ico 26 ( MEXU acc. # 632927) ; Mpio. Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán, northern highlands of Chiapas, Jitotol Ridge, 3 km northwest of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán , 17.5, -92.67, 6700 ft, 1 Jun 1971, E. W. Lathrop 7487 ( CAS barcode 480628) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, Paraje Navil, [16.8417, -92.5108], 2000 m, 15 Nov 1982, A. Méndez Ton 5054 ( MEXU acc. # 839246, MO acc. # 5046632) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, Rancho Banabil, [16.7833, -92.5139], 2200 m, 26 Apr 1983, A. Méndez Ton 5918 ( MEXU acc. # 879240, MO acc. # 3491145, WIS, XAL) ; Mpio. San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Santa Cruz en San Felipe , [16.7134, -92.6640], 15 Nov 1986, A. Méndez Ton 9846 ( CAS barcode 480613, GH, MEXU acc. # 724689, MO acc. # 3900365, NY, TEX barcode 00226973) ; Mpio. Chamula, Yaal Ichin (yoc sac lum), 16.846389, -92.67583, 2180 m, 15 Jun 1993, M. de J. Ruíz Díaz 116 ( CAS barcode 480618) ; Mpio. San Juán Chamula, Paraje Nab ta Kokontik, 7900 ft, 20 May 1988, C. Santíz Ruíz 854 ( CAS barcode 480619, MO acc. # 3859605, NY, TEX barcode 00226968) ; Mpio. San Juán Chamula, Bautista Grande, [16.797778, -92.72944444], 13 Jun 1988, C. Santíz Ruíz 904 ( CAS barcode 480624, MEXU acc. # 935581, MO acc. # 3862030, TEX barcode 0026969, WIS) ; Mpio. Tenejapa, Colonia of ‘ Ach’lum, [16.7753, -92.4467], 9100 ft, 15 May 1967, A. Shilom Ton 2340 ( CAS barcode 480627) .

Figures

FIGURE 2. A. Flower of Lycianthes breedlovei. Photo taken by James Gaither of accession at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. Used with permission of UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. B. Flower of Lycianthes fredyclaudiae. Photo taken by the first author. Scale bars equal 1 cm.

FIGURE 3. Scan of holotype of Lycianthes breedlovei. Image used with permission of the herbarium of the California Academy of Sciences.

FIGURE 4. Distribution of Lycianthes breedlovei and Lycianthes fredyclaudiae.