Capsicum lycianthoides Bitter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 17: 332. 1921.

Barboza, Gloria E., Garcia, Carolina Carrizo, Bianchetti, Luciano de Bem, Romero, Maria V. & Scaldaferro, Marisel, 2022, Monograph of wild and cultivated chili peppers (Capsicum L., Solanaceae), PhytoKeys 200, pp. 1-423 : 1

27. Capsicum lycianthoides Bitter, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 17: 332. 1921.

Fig. 85

Type.

Ecuador. Chimborazo: secus v. Chasuán, Jul 1860, R. Spruce s.n. (holotype: W [acc. # 1889-0222993]; isotypes: CORD [CORD00101757, fragment ex K], K [K000201917]) .

Description.

Erect slender or scandent shrubs or subshrubs, (0.50-) 1-3 (-4) m tall, few branched above, the branches dichotomously spreading in a typical “zig-zag” appearance. Young stems angled, fragile, flexuous, dark green or purple, glabrous, the new growth with few antrorse, simple, uniseriate, 3-4-celled, eglandular trichomes 0.1-0.3 mm long; nodes solid, green or purple; bark of older stems brown, glabrous; lenticels absent. Sympodial units difoliate, the leaves geminate; leaf pair markedly unequal in size and shape. Leaves coriaceous, discolorous, dark green above, pale green or purple or green with purple spots below, glabrous on both surfaces, sometimes with some antrorse eglandular trichomes on mid-vein abaxially; blades of major leaves (10-) 11-22.5 cm long, (3-) 4-8.5 cm wide, ovate or broadly ovate, rarely elliptic, the major veins (6-) 7-10 on each side of mid-vein, the base attenuate to strongly asymmetric, the margins entire, the apex acuminate or long-acuminate; petioles 0.8-2.3 (-3.5) cm long, glabrous; blades of minor leaves 2.5-5.5 (-8) cm long, 1.8-4.5 cm wide, ovate or orbicular, the major veins 3-5 on each side of mid-vein, the base truncate or rounded, the margins entire, the apex acute or obtuse; petioles 0-0.4 cm, glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, (2-) 3-8 (-10) flowers on a short rachis; flowering pedicels 8-15 mm, thin, terete, curved to pendent, non-geniculate at anthesis, green or purple, glabrous or moderately pubescent, the eglandular trichomes short, antrorse; pedicels scars conspicuous, corky. Buds ovoid, yellow or yellow-purple. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx 2-4 mm long, 3-5 mm in diameter, cup-shaped, thin or somewhat fleshy, green, greenish-purple or purple, the calyx appendages (2-) 3-5, 2-3.5 mm long, subequal, linear or subulate, sometimes like horns, spreading or reflexed, 0.3-0.5 mm below the margin, tube and appendages glabrescent with antrorse trichomes 0.3-0.5 mm long. Corolla 8-15 mm long, 15-18 mm in diameter, yellow or yellow with a purple star or dark brown spots outside and within, broadly campanulate, with a thin and wide interpetalar membrane connecting the lobes to the distal end, pentagonal in outline, shallowly lobed, glabrous adaxially and abaxially, the tube 7.5-14.5 mm long, the lobes ca. 0.5 mm long, the margin and the tips papillate. Stamens five, subequal or filaments unequal, with three filaments 1.5-2.5 mm long and two filaments 2.5-4 mm long, pale yellow or yellow-brown or whitish, inserted on the corolla ca. 2 mm from the base, with auricles fused to the corolla at the point of insertion; anthers (2.2-) 2.5-2.7 mm long, ellipsoid, whitish, yellow or light brown, not connivent at anthesis. Gynoecium with ovary 1.5-2 mm long, ca. 1.2 mm in diameter, greenish-yellow, ovoid or ellipsoid; ovules more than two per locule; nectary 0.5-0.7 mm tall; styles homomorphic, 6-7.2 mm long, exserted ca. 1.5 mm beyond the anthers, white or cream, clavate; stigma 0.3-0.4 mm long. 0.7 mm wide, usually discoid, sometimes slightly bilobed, light green or cream. Berry 7-12 mm in diameter, globose or globose-depressed, white or light green when immature, bright orange or red at maturity, deciduous, non-pungent, the pericarp thick, opaque, lacking giant cells (endocarp smooth); stone cells 1-6 or absent, ellipsoid, 0.8-1.1 mm long, 0.5-1.2 m in diameter; fruiting pedicels 13-30 mm long, pendent, terete, slightly widened distally, green or greenish-purple; fruiting calyx 5-6 mm in diameter, persistent, not accrescent, greenish-purple or purple, discoid, the appendages 3-6 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, reflexed, greenish-purple or purple. Seeds 34-75 per fruit, 1.5-1.8 mm long, 1.1-1.4 mm wide, teardrop-shaped, brownish-black to black, the seed coat reticulate (SM and SEM), the cells polygonal in shape, the lateral walls straight; embryo annular.

Distribution.

Capsicum lycianthoides is endemic to the Andean Region of Colombia and Ecuador (Fig. 86 ).

Ecology.

Capsicum lycianthoides is a typical element of tropical montane rain forests growing in the margins or interior of primary or secondary forests in sunny or shady areas at (300-) 500-3,500 m elevation.

Phenology.

Flowering and fruiting all year.

Chromosome number.

2 n = 2x = 26 ( Scaldaferro and Moscone 2019).

Common names.

None recorded.

Uses.

None recorded.

Preliminary conservation assessment.

EOO (224,147.836 km2 - LC); AOO (492 km2 - EN). Capsicum lycianthoides is widely distributed along the Colombian and Ecuadorian Andes and is a common species where it occurs. Based on the EOO and AOO and that many collections have been made in different official and private protected areas in recent years, we assign this species the Least Concern (LC) status.

Discussion.

Capsicum lycianthoides is a member of the Andean clade ( Carrizo García et al. 2016, as C. geminifolium ; Barboza et al. 2019). It is easily recognised by its glabrous stems and leaves, large ovate to broadly ovate leaves, 2-5 calyx appendages that are sometimes horn-like, showy, broadly campanulate, yellow (often spotted dark brown) corollas and orange or red non-pungent fruits (Fig. 85 ).

The name C. lycianthoides has been ignored in literature and the species has been confused with C. geminifolium ( Moscone et al. 2007; Barboza 2016; Carrizo García et al. 2016), a sympatric species. Both species share pendent flowering pedicels, yellow corollas and orange to red non-pungent fruits, but C. geminifolium is a pubescent plant with smaller membranous, elliptic or narrowly elliptic leaves, longer flowering pedicels (up to 27 mm vs. 15 mm in C. lycianthoides ) and campanulate (stellate in outline) corollas (vs. broadly campanulate, pentagonal in ouline, in C. lycianthoides ).

Specimens examined.

See Suppl. material 4: Appendix 4.

Figures

Figure 85. Capsicum lycianthoides A flowering branch B reproductive nodes with pedicel scars C flower, in pre-anthesis D, E flowers, in lateral view, with variations in calyx morphology and corolla colouration F, G flowers, in front view H immature fruit I mature fruit A, I from Beltran 85, photos by G. Beltran B, D, H from Deanna et al. 144 C, E-G from Deanna et al. 133, photos by R. Deanna.

Figure 86. Distribution of C. lycianthoides, C. minutiflorum and C. mirabile.