Vellozia mellosilvae Andr.Cabral, Magri & J.C.Lopes, 2022

Cabral, Andressa, Albuquerque Magri, Renato & Lopes, Jenifer de Carvalho, 2022, Increasing knowledge on the diversity of canelas-de-ema in the campo rupestre: two new species of Vellozia (Velloziaceae) from the southern Espinhaco Range, Brazil, Plant Ecology and Evolution 155 (3), pp. 343-352 : 343

publication ID	https://dx.doi.org/10.5091/plecevo.94326
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/9CA3E0D2-AEAE-5F10-8B19-0BC9A5E3F65B
treatment provided by	by Pensoft
scientific name	Vellozia mellosilvae Andr.Cabral, Magri & J.C.Lopes
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Vellozia mellosilvae Andr.Cabral, Magri & J.C.Lopes View in CoL sp. nov.

Figs 2E-I View Figure 2 , 3 View Figure 3 , 4 View Figure 4 , 5 View Figure 5

Type.

BRAZIL - Minas Gerais • Itacambira, Serra de Itacambira. Estrada Juramento Itacambira , 46 km do balneário de Juramento, 250 m a oeste da estrada; 17°00 ’36.8” S, 43°20 ’28.5” W; 1280 m; 24 Dec. 2017; fl.; R. Mello-Silva 4347, A. Cabral, F.K. Kiataqui & D.Y.M. Nakamura; holotype: SPF; isotypes RB, R, SP, BHCB GoogleMaps .

Paratype.

BRAZIL - Minas Gerais • Itacambira, Estrada para Montes Claros; 9 Jan. 1986; fr.; Mello-Silva CFCR 9093; R [R000163051, R000163051a], SPF • Itacambira, Serra de Itacambira, a 45 km de Juramento; 17°04'S, 43°20'W; 1200 m; 14 Feb. 1988; fr.; Pirani 2259; NY [NY00898964], SPF • Itacambira, no alto da serra; 17°04'S, 43°18'W; 1200 m; 14 Feb. 1988; fr.; Pirani 2275; NY [NY00898963], SPF.

Diagnosis.

Vellozia mellosilvae resembles V. armata by their tristichous phyllotaxis, violet perianth, and overlapping number of stamens, and dimensions of anther, style, and stigma. However, V. mellosilvae differs by the longer (1.6-4.2 cm vs 1.5 cm in V. armata ) and evident pedicel (vs completely hidden by the leaves in V. armata ), larger petals and sepals (2.5-4.2 × 0.9-1.2 cm vs 1.5-2.3 × 0.5 cm in V. armata ), leaf furrows (present vs absent/reduced in V. armata ), and margin (serrate vs spinescent in V. armata ).

Description.

Caespitose herb. Stems 2.1-11.2 cm long. Leaves tristichous; leaf lamina 11.9-29 × 0.6-1.3 cm, linear-triangular, caudate, arcuate, involute at the base, sparsely serrate on margins and midrib of the abaxial side, abscission line absent, the old laminae marcescent and reflexed. Flowers 1-4; pedicel 1.6-4.3 cm long, sparsely covered with subulate emergences, light green to yellowish-green; hypanthium 5-6 × 3-4 mm, obovoid, densely covered with subulate emergences, light green to yellowish-green. Perianth violet on the adaxial side and light violet on the abaxial side; sepals 2.8-3.7 × 0.9-1.3 cm, widely-oblanceolate, abaxial face and margin sparsely covered with subulate emergences, adaxial smooth; petals 2.5-4.2 × 1-1.2 cm, obovate, midrib of the abaxial side sparsely covered with subulate emergences on apical and proximal region, adaxial smooth. Stamens 18-20, 3-5 grouped, appendages absent; filaments irregularly united at the bottom, light-violet; anthers 6-11 mm long, basifixed, yellow. Style 14.6-23 mm long, white; stigma 2.4-4 mm diam., trilobate-peltate, yellow. Capsule loculicidal, ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, 8-18 × 6-10 mm, ochre. Seeds not seen.

Leaf and pedicel anatomy.

Blade dorsiventral (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Abaxial furrows about one fifth thickness of blade (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Cuticle slightly thickened on both surfaces (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Adaxial epidermis 2-3-seriate, abaxial epidermis uniseriate (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Stomata paracytic, confined to furrows (Fig. 2G View Figure 2 ). Cells elliptically clustered present on both surfaces (Fig. 2F-G View Figure 2 ). Aquiferous 1(-2)-seriate hypodermis present on adaxial surface, extending adaxially to the bundle sheaths as aquiferous parenchyma (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Palisade mesophyll 2-3 cell-layers thick (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Fibro-vascular bundles surrounded by a unique bundle sheath, 1-3(-4) large vessels present in each fibro-vascular bundle (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Phloem strands 2, V-shaped (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Bundles of sclerified cells 2-8 cells thick present on the adaxial epidermis, spaced each 1-7 epidermal cells (Fig. 2E View Figure 2 ). Blade borders with large and rounded fibro-vascular bundles, conduction tissues present. Pedicel rounded in transverse section, fibro-vascular bundles 13, belt of sclerified cells absent (Fig. 2H-I View Figure 2 ).

Distribution and habitat.

Vellozia mellosilvae occurs in the campo rupestre of Itacambira municipality, southern Espinhaço Range, Minas Gerais state, Brazil (Fig. 3 View Figure 3 ). This species is found in rocky outcrops among shrubs in sandy soil and rock crevices at elevations from 1,200 to 1,280 m.

Phenology.

Flowering in December and fruiting from January to February.

Etymology.

The epithet is named after Renato Mello-Silva (1961-2020), the greatest authority in the systematics of Brazilian Velloziaceae and who also collected the holotype of Vellozia mellosilvae .

Preliminary IUCN Conservation assessment.

Vellozia mellosilvae is endemic to the municipality of Itacambira and has an area of occupancy of 12 km² and extent of occurrence of approximately 11 km². Although it occurs in large populations, V. mellosilvae is not protected by conservation units. Besides that, the campo rupestre is a sensitive ecosystem to threats such as mining and livestock farming ( Ribeiro and Freitas 2010). Therefore, V. mellosilvae is considered Critically Endangered: CR B1abiii.

Notes.

Vellozia mellosilvae morphotype was already described under Vellozia luteola in Mello-Silva and Menezes (1988) based on vegetative characters and fruit morphology. However, the author observed conspicuous differences in the leaf anatomy between populations from the type-location of V. luteola and from Itacambira (i.e. presence/absence of bulliform cells and abaxial furrows). After analysing a recent collection of a flowering individual, we recognized the population of Itacambira as a distinct species. In addition to the characters highlighted by Mello-Silva (1988), V. mellosilvae can be differentiated from V. luteola by the violet perianth (vs yellow in V. luteola ), sepal and petal dimensions (2.5-4.2 cm × 9-12.7 mm vs 1.5-2.5 cm × 4-7 mm in V. luteola ) and presence and distribution of emergences on their abaxial surface, 18-20 stamens (vs 15 in V. luteola ), anthers length (6-11 mm vs 4-7 mm in V. luteola ), and stigma diameter (2.4-4 mm vs ca 6 mm in V. luteola ) (Table 1 View Table 1 ).