Hohenbergia ymboreorum E.H.Souza & B.P.Cavalcante, 2022

Cavalcante, Brayan Paiva, Aona, Lidyanne Yuriko Saleme & Souza, Everton Hilo De, 2022, Hohenbergia ymboreorum (Bromeliaceae): a new green-flowered bromeliad from Bahia, Brazil, Phytotaxa 567 (3), pp. 278-286 : 279-284

Hohenbergia ymboreorum E.H.Souza & B.P.Cavalcante sp. nov. (figs. 1 to 3)

Diagnose:—This new species is morphologically closer to H. minor and H. augusta , but can be easily distinguished by its longer and narrower leaves 100–125 × 3.8–4.4 cm (vs. 42–70 × ca. 15 cm in H. minor and 60–80 × 12.5–14.5 cm in H. augusta ), sparsely white-lanate inflorescence (vs. dense brown-lanate in both), typical strobilaceous spikes formed by extremely dense-organized flowers (vs. glomerular and loose-organized flowers in both), smaller flower 7–9 mm (vs. ca. 17 mm in H. minor and ca. 14 mm in H. augusta ), dorsi-ventrally flattened (vs. rounded in both), golden-brown floral bracts (vs. green in both), not fully hiding the sepals (vs. hiding sepals in both), and erect petals with a slight patent toward the apex (vs. completely reflexed at anthesis in both).

Type:— Brazil. Bahia: Vitória da Conquista, Rodovia BA-263 - Vitória da Conquista para Itapetinga, 14°59’9.7”S, 40°48’33.7”W, 822 m elevation, 31 July 2021, E. H.Souza 406 & B. P.Cavalcante (holotype: HURB!, isotype: RB!, HVASF!, ALCB!) .

Description:— Plants 70–115 cm tall when flowering, terrestrial or more rarely epiphytic, reproducing by basal shoots; open rosette, 100–150 cm diam., impounding water. Leaves 28–35 in number, 100–125 cm long, with the blades greenish or sometimes yellowish when sun exposed, lustrous, inconspicuously lepidote abaxially; sheath 15–18 × 4.4–5.2 cm, narrowly elliptic, coriaceous, glabrous, margin entire, brownish except for the vinaceous distal part; blade 85–107 × 3.8–4.2 cm, linear oblong to lanceolate, green and lustrous, apex cuspidate, apical spine ca. 1 cm long, brownish, slight recurved margin densely serrate, prickles reddish, rigid, ca. 2 mm long. Inflorescence (fertile portion), 35–50 cm long, 27–35 cm wide at the base, 2-branched, erect, broadly pyramidal, greenish to brown, loosely white-lanate; peduncle 40–55 cm × 1.2–1.5 cm, erect, woody, greenish to brown, sparsely white-lanate, internodes not covered by peduncle bracts, peduncle bracts 6–8 × 1.8–2.1 cm, lanceolate, margin entire, apex spinescent, light-brown, sparsely white-lanate, stramineous, not imbricate, surpassing the internodes but not fully hiding them; primary bracts 7–8 × 1.8–2.1 cm, lanceolate, margins entire, light-brown, chartaceous, sparsely white-lanate, shorter than branches; stipes of the primary branches 4–5 cm long, greenish to brown, shorter than the primary bracts and concealed by them; primary branches 13–17 cm long; secondary bracts ca. 0.5 × 0.4 cm, triangular, similar to primary bracts in color; stipes of the secondary branches ca. 1 cm long, greenish to brown, with a single apical spike; spikes 2–3.5 cm long and ellipsoid, presenting the flowers in a congested and strobilar aspect. Floral bracts ca. 4.8–5.2 × 2.8–3 mm, goldenbrown in color, ovate to broadly triangular with a spinescent cuspidate apex, nerved, loosely white-lanate, exceeded by the sepals, concealing the ovary completely; flowers 7–9 mm long, sessile, with tubular corolla and calyx, and the calyx flattened on ventral side, anthesis diurnal, sweetly fragrant; sepals 2.8–3.1 × 4.8–5.1 mm, asymmetrical, white to lightyellow, ovoidal-triangular, with an unilateral extended marginal wing, apex acute, with a white-lepidote indument of sparsely distributed filamentous trichomes; petals 6–7.2 × 2.7–3 mm, green, erect at the base and spreading-recurved toward the apex, spatulate, apex acute, exceeding the stamens but exposing them at anthesis, bearing 2 appendages; petal appendages ca. 1.5 mm long, denticulate, bifid, situated at the basal portion of the petals; stamens ca. 6 mm long, white, shorter than petals, exceeded by the stigma, the epipetalous ones fused up to the first half length with the petals, and the antisepalous ones free; filaments complanate; ovary 1.8–2 mm long, prismatic, hidden by the floral bracts, with interlocular nectaries; style 6–7 mm long, light-purple, erect, surpassing the stamens; stigma conduplicatespiral, purple; ovules numerous, anatropous, with a prominent chalazal appendage; anthers ca. 2 mm long, cylindrical, yellowish. Fruit ca. 5 mm long, white; seeds 0.8–1 mm long, ellipsoid and brownish.

Distribution and habitat: — Hohenbergia ymboreorum was found growing as a terrestrial or rarely as an epiphyte under trees shorter than 2.5 m tall, at the edge of a highland transitional area between the Atlantic Forest and Caatinga physiognomies in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, along the highway BA-263, which connects Vitória da Conquista to the municipality of Itapetinga. The forest fragment are located inside farms, and surrounded by pasturelands, where it is possible to see livestock also eating the leaves and the youngest inflorescences of the species. Almost all the plants’ leaves and inflorescences were eaten by horses and cows, including the epiphytic plants, probably affecting the growth and reproduction of these plants. The area suffers from the expansion of local farms and construction of village houses. Probably the area will be almost totally deforested in the next few years. The fragment where the species was collected has many other bromeliads, such as Billbergia iridifolia ( Nees & Martius 1823: 16) Lindley (1827: 1068) , Bromelia laciniosa Schultes & Schultes (1830: 1278) , Cryptanthus bibarrensis Leme (2002: 86) , Pseudananas sagenarius ( Arruda da Câmara (1810: 13) Camargo (1939: 322), Quesnelia conquistensis Leme (2008: 169) , Vriesea gigantea Gaudichaud (1843: 70) , Vriesea pauperrima E. Pereira (1972: 274) , and several Tillandsia Linneaus (1753: 286) species, with their respective populations growing side-by-side, forming a mixed bromeliad community.

Etymology:—The specific epithet ymboreorum refers to the indigenous tribe called Ymboré, who lived in the area that is now Vitória da Conquista. The Ymboré and two other tribes, the Pataxó and Mongoyó, waged war for occupation of the territory. These struggles were not for ownership of land, but rather for survival, since they were all hunters and gatherers (Prefeitura Municipal de Vitória da Conquista 2012).

Phenology:—We observed plants of Hohenbergia ymboreorum blooming in June to September, and fruiting plants could also be observed in the same period.

Conservation status:—Based on plotting the known occurrences of Hohenbergia ymboreorum with the Geocat software ( Bachman et al. 2011), the estimated extent of occurrence (EOO) was 2,407 km ², and the area of occupancy (AOO) was 12,000 km ². The limited occurrence of the species and the high negative pressure in the region (farm expansion) warrant classifying the species as Critically Endangered (CR B1 ab (i,ii,iii)) according to the IUCN criteria ( IUCN 2020).

Distinctive traits:— Hohenbergia ymboreorum shares many similarities with other mesic species, even though it does not inhabit humid forests. At first glance, the species draws attention to its foliage, which is not similar to any other Hohenbergia species from Campos Rupestres (rocky fields), such as the widely-open rosette (vs. lageniform in rock field species), with long and narrow green-colored leaves (vs. short and wide, yellow, black, red and/or purple). Also, its inflorescence is quite similar to humid forest species, such as pyramidal inflorescence with long stipes (vs. cylindrical with short stipes) ( Baracho 2003). For that reason, although the new species inhabits the highland transitional area between Atlantic Forest and Caatinga, there is no close relatives that can be used for morphological comparison in similar habitat to it. Thus, the most suitable species for comparison with H. ymboreorum are species endemic to mesic environments.

Hohenbergia ymboreorum is morphologically similar to H. augusta and H. minor Smith (1940: 34) , in which it shares the green petals with H. augusta , a very rare trait in the genus. At first, it can be distinguished from both species, principally by the longer and narrower leaves in H. ymboreorum (see diagnose and Table 1 ), the partly visible loosely white-lanate peduncle and smaller flowers, with golden-brown floral bracts. Regarding the confusion with H. minor , there are plenty differences with the new species to allow a correct identification. While H. ymboreorum can reach up to 115 × 150 cm, H. minor is considered one of the smallest species in the genus, with a size of ca. 50 × 80 cm, flowers in H. ymboreorum are ca. 7–9 mm long, while ca. 17 mm in H. minor ; spikes vary between 2.5–3.5 cm in H. ymboreorum and 4–6 cm in H. minor . Although information regarding the petals color is missing in the original description of H. minor , the taxonomic revision for the genus ( Baracho 2003) established the color as being lilac, which also differ from H. ymboreorum (green). Additional information about the differences between these three species can be seen in the details presented in table 1.

Additionally, another species that may lead to confusion for a proper identification is H. blanchetii ( Baker 1889: 43) Mez (1891: 267) , but is easily distinguished by the narrow leaf blade in H. ymboreorum , ellipsoid spikes (vs. globose), golden-brown floral bracts (vs. green), petals green (vs. lilac) and style purple (vs. white) (see Table 1 for more details).

In the region of Vitória da Conquista, another species of Hohenbergia can be observed, Hohenbergia conquistensis Leme (2003: 169) , but several morphological differences easily distinguish them, such as shape, length and width of the rosette, which is widely open in H. ymboreorum (vs. lageniform), pyramidal and elongate inflorescence (vs. cylindrical and congested), stipitate branches and ellipsoidal spikes (vs. sessile and globose), flowers 7–9 mm long (vs. 16–19 mm), green petals (vs. lilac petals) and purple style (vs. white style).