Cypella amplimaculata Chauveau & L.Eggers, 2014

Chauveau, Olivier, Pastori, Tamara, Souza-Chies, Tatiana T. & Eggers, Lilian, 2014, Overlooked diversity in Brazilian Cypella (Iridaceae, Iridoideae): four new taxa from the Río de la Plata grasslands, Phytotaxa 174 (1), pp. 25-42 : 29-32

Cypella amplimaculata Chauveau & L.Eggers , sp. nov. ( Figs. 1B and 4 )

Cypella amplimaculata is comparable to C. fucata and C. herbertii , two species with orange flowers; however, it is distinguished by a broad red brown central line extended longitudinally on the outer tepals and much longer style arms, the distance between the anthers being distinctly greater. The new species strongly reminds C. fucata in general aspect, but differs by a greater flower diameter, longer and erecto-patent filaments, longer anthers, and by the twisted adaxial crests. It is distinct from C. herbertii by the narrower leaf width, the shorter connate part of the filaments, the narrower width and lighter colour of the connective (vs. dark redbrown to dark violet), the longer adaxial crests and lighter colour of crests base (vs. dark red-brown to dark purple).

Type: — BRAZIL. Rio Grande do Sul: Piratini , BR 293 , direção Bagé , 140 m, 25 October 2011 (fl, fr), A. M . Aita 49 (holotype, ICN!) .

Perennial herb, up to (16.5–)27–64(–70) cm high above the soil, underground stem up to (2.2–)3.5–7(–14) cm long. Bulb ovoid, outer cataphylls dark brown, 10–14(–17) × 10–13(–17) mm, prolonged in a short collar. Basal leaves green at anthesis (0–)2–3(–5), blades linear-attenuate, plicate, (8.5–)25–56.5(–65.5) × (0.15–)0.45–0.7(–0.9) cm. Flowering stem cylindrical, (11.5–)21.1–58(–64) cm long, proximally foliate (one reduced cauline leaf), then bracteose; first internode (0.4–)7.5–16.7(–24.5) cm long; cauline leaf (4.7–)12.7–24.5(–40.5) × (0.15–) 0.45–0.8 cm. Synflorescence cymose, simple or 2(–3) branches, each subtending 2–5 pedunculate inflorescences arising from the same point, peduncles (3–) 3.6–11.2 cm long. Inflorescence one-flowered (rhipidium like); spathes herbaceous, bivalved, lower valve 2–4 cm long, the upper (3.6–)4.1–5.6(–6.4) cm long, both with membranous edges. Pedicel filiform, generally shorter than the upper valve with the ovary usually partly exserted. Flowers predominantly orange, 45–60 mm diameter. Tepals unequal, shortly fused proximally for 0.5–1 mm. Outer tepals pandurate, (27–)32–36(–39) × (19–) 22–28 mm; the proximal part concave, pale yellow to orange-yellow, slightly translucent, finely purple veined mainly on the abaxial side, broadly marked with a purple spot at the base and a conspicuous purple to purplish-red central line extended longitudinally beyond the constricted region, the distal edge of the concave part sparsely marked by an area of glandular trichomes on the central line; the distal part reclinate, orange, obovate, slightly retuse and acuminate. Inner tepals reduced, assurgent proximally, then incurved and abruptly reclinate distally, 10–11(–12) × 7–9 mm; the proximal half cuneate, not unguiculate, whitish, broadly streaked with purple; the distal half orange, longitudinally depressed, except at the distal end, and white in the middle with a dense oblong orange-yellow area of oil-producing trichomes (elaiophore) marked with purple spots, the lateral sides firmly revolute, striated transversely with purple, the apex acute, spotted with purple. Filaments connate basally for 0.1–0.2 mm, porrect, whitish, obclavate, 0.5–0.6 mm wide at mid-length, striated with purple on the inflated base, rarely on the whole length, (2–)2.2–3.5(–4) mm long. Anthers oblong, (5–)5.2–6.2(–7.5) × 1.1–1.5 mm, adnate to the style arms for half of the length; connective apically slightly retuse, whitish to pale orange-yellow towards the distal end, 0.7–1 mm wide, usually covered with a viscous and transparent secretion; locules dark brown to black; pollen ochraceous. Ovary subclavate, (7–)8–9.5(–11) × 2.1–2.5(–3) mm. Style whitish to pale yellow, rarely finely striated with purple on the whole length, (4.1–)5–6(–6.8) mm long. Style arms pale yellow to orange towards the distal end, conduplicate, (4–)4.5–5(–5.5) mm long; crests at the apex, orange, adaxial crest 2, erect, longitudinally twisted at the base, slightly falcate inwards, (3.8–)4–5(–5.8) mm long, abaxial crest triangular, lobed, (0.6–)1–1.9(–2.1) mm long; stigmatic surfaces transverse, 2, on each side at the base of the abaxial crest, usually dark red-brown, (0.6–)1–1.3(–1.8) mm long. Capsule obovate-truncate, 11–20 × 4–6.5 mm. Seeds obconical, triangular in adaxial view, sharply angulate, epidermis verrucose areolate, 1.2–1.5 mm long.

Distribution and Habitat:— Cypella amplimaculata was collected in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil ( Fig. 5 ), in grassland vegetation of low to moderate elevation (87 to 661 m). The populations usually consist of few individuals scattered in dry grasslands. The geographical distribution of the species overlaps the Pampa biome and the southern part of the Subtropical Highland Grasslands included in the Atlantic Forest biome.

Phenology: —Flowering and fruiting from September to December, March and June.

Conservation Status: —According to the IUCN Red List guidelines ( IUCN 2001), the species can be considered as Nearly Threatened (NT), but may qualify for a higher threat category in the future, mainly because of decline quality or loss of habitat through substitution of natural grasslands by agricultural areas.

Etymology: —Named after the broad red-brown central line extended longitudinally on the outer tepals, since the species can be easily distinguished by this floral feature.

Additional specimens examined (paratypes): — BRAZIL. Rio Grande do Sul: Cerrito , BR 293 , beira de estrada, 87 m, 18 November 2006 (fl), L . Eggers & T. T . Souza-Chies 191 ( ICN!); Capão do Leão , 92 m, 18 November 2006 (fl, fr), L . Eggers & T. T . Souza-Chies 192 ( ICN!); Livramento, Cerro do Armour , 210 m, 17 October 2009 (fl), L . Eggers & T. T . Souza-Chies 508 ( ICN!); Porto Alegre, Morro Santana, trilha para lado sul do Morro , 287 m, 23 September 2011 (fl), L . Eggers & O . Chauveau 664 ( MBM!); Porto Alegre, Morro Teresópolis, Praça Dr. Dario Rodrigues da Silva , 192 m, 05 October 2011 (fl), T. L. S . Alves 81 ( ICN!); Porto Alegre , Morro São Pedro, em campo próximo à antena, 15 December 2011 (fl, fr), T. L. S . Alves 174 ( SI!); Porto Alegre , Morro Santana, em campo recentemente queimado, face norte, 01 June 2012 (fl), T. L. S . Alves 220 ( ICN!); Viamão, Morro Santana , 286 m, 19 March 2013 (fl), L . Eggers et al. 819 ( ICN!); Júlio de Castilhos , estrada Júlio de Castilhos para Quevedos , campo pastejado, 468 m, 17 October 2013 (fl), L . Eggers et al. 823 ( ICN!); Júlio de Castilhos , estrada para baragem Kotzian , 307 m, 18 October 2013 (fl.), L . Eggers & O . Chauveau 824 ( MBM!); Fontoura Xavier , BR 386 , aproximadamente Km 258, antes do Parque das Tuias, campo nativo perto de um córrego de água, 661 m, 04 December 2013 (fl, fr), L . Eggers & O . Chauveau 883 ( P!) .

Taxonomic relationships: — Cypella amplimaculata has been collected since 2006 by ourselves, but has been erroneously neglected because of its close similarity to C.fucata Ravenna(1981a:18) . Most of the time, C. amplimaculata is a higher plant with longer and broader basal leaves as well as larger flowers than C. fucata . However, these characters are not discriminant for some samples of the new species and the serious differences observed in relation to the original description of C. fucata have been initially attributed to a higher phenotypic plasticity. Nevertheless, further detailed observations were carried out during various field expeditions and diagnostic characters were identified to distinguish the new species from C. fucata . Beyond the broad central line present on the outer tepals and the length of the style arms, morphological characters such as the perigon diameter, the length of the different parts of the androecium, the way the filaments diverge from the main axis of the flower and the conformation of the adaxial crests were retained to differentiate both species. In this context, the specimens used by Marco et al. (2009) to study the genetic variability within C. fucata have been misidentified and belong definitely to C. amplimaculata .

The new species shares superficial similarities with C. herbertii ( Lindley 1826: t. 949) Herbert (1826: supra t. 2599), but it can be easily distinguished by the characteristic connective and style crests base colour of the latter. Additionally, the length of adaxial crests is much shorter and the leaves are much broader in C. herbertii . Crosscomparisons of relevant character states between the three species are presented in Table 2.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Habits of new species of Cypella. A. C. altouruguaya Chauveau & L.Eggers. From T.B. Guimarães & L. Dal Ri 6 (ICN!) B. C. amplimaculata Chauveau & L.Eggers. From A.M. Aita 49 (ICN!), drawings by Anelise Scherer.

FIGURE 4. Cypella amplimaculata Chauveau & L.Eggers. A–C. Flower. A. apical view B. lateral view C. basal view D–F. Inner tepal D. adaxial view E. abaxial view F. lateral view G. Ovary H. Stamens and style in lateral view I. Style crests and stigmatic replicatures. From A.M. Aita 49 (ICN!).

FIGURE 5. Distribution map of Cypella amplimaculata (circle) in Southern Brazil.