Ipomoea chiquitensis

Wood, John R. I., Munoz-Rodriguez, Pablo, Williams, Bethany R. M. & Scotland, Robert W., 2020, A foundation monograph of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) in the New World, PhytoKeys 143, pp. 1-823 : 1

406. Ipomoea chiquitensis J.R.I. Wood & Scotland, Kew Bull. 70 (31): 18. 2015. (Wood et al. 2015: 18)

Type.

BOLIVIA. Santa Cruz, Velasco, 6-10 km N de San Rafael en el camino a San Miguel, J.R.I. Wood & D. Soto 27388 (holotype USZ; isotypes K, LPB).

Description.

Very slender, possibly annual, twining herb reaching no more than 1 m in height, stems glabrous. Leaves petiolate, 2.5-5.5 × 1.5-4.5 cm, ovate, cordate with rounded auricles, becoming truncate upwards, apex acute and minutely mucronate, margin entire, adaxially thinly pilose, abaxially glabrous; petioles, 0.5-3 cm long, diminishing in length upwards, pubescent. Inflorescence of very shortly pedunculate 1-2-flowered cymes from the leaf axils; peduncles 3-7 mm, elongating in fruit to 20 mm, glabrous; bracteoles filiform, 1 mm; pedicels 3-7 mm, pubescent; sepals subequal, 5-6 × 2.5 mm (accrescent to 6.5 mm), ovate, acute terminating in an aristate point, pilose with scattered long multicellular hairs, margins slightly paler, inner sepals slightly shorter and paler, nearly glabrous; corolla c. 2.2 cm long, uniformly pink, glabrous, funnel-shaped, midpetaline bands ending in a small white tooth; Capsules 6 × 3 mm, glabrous, ovoid, rostrate, the style base persistent as a pyramidal point 1.5 mm long.

Illustration.

Figure 199 .

Distribution.

Granite rock platforms at low altitudes in two very disjunct regions in Brazil and Bolivia.

BRAZIL. Ceará: Mun. Piripiri, 4°231352'S, 41°51'21"W, 158 m, J.A.A.M. Lourenço 124 (PEUFR). Piauí and Rio Grande do Norte fide Sousa-Santos et al. (2018).

BOLIVIA. Santa Cruz: San Rafael de Velasco, type cllection.

Note.

Ipomoea chiquitensis is a distinctive species readily recognised by the very small, shortly pedunculate flowers, adaxially pilose leaves and small pointed pilose sepals. The small glabrous pink corolla (c. 2.2 cm long) is only matched by that of I. dumetorum , I. deminuta and some species in the Batatas Clade (A3), such as I. ramosissima , but is readily distinguished from all of these by the distinctive ovate, acute sepals.

Figures

Figure 199. Ipomoea chiquitensis. A habit B outer sepal C inner sepal D corolla opened up to show stamens, ovary and style E shoot with young fruiting inflorescence F calyx with young fruit. Drawn by Rosemary Wise from Wood & Soto 27388.