Chamaedorea inaequilateralis H. Wendl. ex Dammer

Dowe, John Leslie & Hodel, Donald Robert, 2021, Taxonomy and nomenclature of four unresolved names published by Udo Dammer in the genus Chamaedorea (Arecaceae), Candollea 76 (1), pp. 93-98 : 97

Chamaedorea inaequilateralis H. Wendl. ex Dammer in Gard. Chron. ser. 3, 38: 43. 1905, syn. nov.

Lectotypus (designated here): CoSTA RICA: above Turrialba, 25.III. 1857, H. Wendland 24 ( GOET [ GOET025266 ]!).

= Chamaedorea costaricana Oerst. in Vidensk. Meddel. Dansk Naturhist. Foren. Kjøbenhavn 1858: 19. 1858 ( Fig. 1D ). ≡ Nunnezharia costaricana (Oerst.) Kuntze , Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 730. 1891. ≡ Omanthe costaricana (Oerst.) O.F. Cook in Science 90: 298. 1939.

Holotypus: CoSTA RICA: Cartago, Turrialba, s.d., Oersted s.n. ( C [ C6543 ]!).

Notes. – DAMMER (1905) provided the following description: leaves pinnate, segments lanceolate, oblong lanceolate or elliptical, almost imbricate, more than 20 per side, greater than 30.5 cm long, 3.5–3.8 cm wide. WENDLAND (1857) related his observation of Chamaedorea species in the vicinity of Turrialba where the type specimen of C. inaequilateralis was collected. In his report dated 4 April 1857 written at San Jose, Costa Rica, Wendland noted that among the plants gathered at Turrialba were chamaedoreas that had roots emerging from high on the stem.

The lectotype chosen here [GOET025266] consists of a single collection composed of three sheets. One sheet includes a complete inflorescence with flowers. The second sheet includes a complete inflorescence with flowers, the apical portion of a leaf with intact pinnae and sections of leaf rachis lacking pinnae. The third sheet includes numerous detached pinnae. There is a label in Wendland’s hand: “ Morenia (Chamaedorea) inaequilatera ”.

Chamaedorea costaricana ( Fig. 1D ), with clustering stems and long-pinnate leaves, is a variable and wide-ranging species occurring from at least Panama in the south to Honduras in the north. If one includes the perhaps-not-distinct C. quezalteca Standl. & Steyerm. in C. costaricana , its range extends north into Mexico.

Figures

Fig. 1.– A. Chamaedorea tepejilote Liebm., moist montane forest, Suchitepequez,Guatemala; B. Chamaedorea elatior Mart., moist forest, Veracruz, Mexico; C. Chamaedorea warscewiczii H. Wendl., moist forest, Panama; D. Chamaedorea costaricana Oerst., moist forest, Costa Rica. [B: Hodel 949; C: Hodel 725; D: Hodel 693] [Photos: D.R. Hodel]