Ocotea granulosa W. Palacios, 2018

Palacios, Walter A., 2018, Two New Species of Lauraceae from Ecuador, Phytotaxa 346 (2), pp. 180-188 : 184-187

Ocotea granulosa W. Palacios , sp. nov. ( Figs. 4 , 5 )

This species is similar to Ocotea pautensis from which it differs by a dense and strigulose indumentum and blackish amorphous granules on the lower leaf surface and 3–6 panicles arranged in the axils of foliage leaves or cataphylls beneath the terminal bud, or along the base of new growth.

Holotype:— ECUADOR. Sucumbíos: Parroquia Santa Bárbara, 1 km above from town. Humid montane forest, deep black soils, 0°38’N, 77°31’W, 2600 m, 13 Feb 2010, fl., Palacios 17235 ( QCNE 0241220 !; isotype MO!).

Tree, up to 25 m tall and 45 cm DBH. Bark with scattered lenticels and irregularly wavy vertical rhytidoma stripes, inner bark brown with granular texture. Buds 1–1.4 cm long, brown, densely strigulose and with dispersed amorphous granules. Branchlets gray, terete or angular. Leaves simple, alternate, narrowly elliptic (the smallest elliptic), stiff, coriaceous, 14–22 cm long × 6–8 cm wide; upper surface glabrous in adult leaves, with appressed and dense hairs in young leaves; undersurface glabrous in adult leaves, brown or grayish (in the fresh leaves) and with dense strigulose indumentum combined with amorphous blackish granules in young leaves; apex acute to shortly acuminate; base acute, cuneate or obtuse, narrowly but distinctly recurved at the base; 8–11 pairs of secondary veins; tertiary venation predominantly scalariform; petiole 1–1.6 cm long, flattened or widely channeled. Indumentum dense, tomentulose and granulose, mixed with longer hairs on peduncles, pedicels and receptacle, when these parts are young. Inflorescence a panicle, 3–6 panicles arranged in the axils of mature foliage leaves and/or in the axils of cataphylls beneath the terminal bud or along the new growth between the group of young leaves and the group of mature leaves, 10–25 cm long; inflorescence branches 3–7 cm long; rachis angular; peduncle absent or up to 6 cm long; pedicels 3–5 mm long. Flowers bisexual; 6 tepals, obliquely erect, with only their tip curved outwards, connate at the base (detachment of the tepals as a unit), brown tomentulose-granulose on the outside, green or cream and granulose on the inside, the outer three ovate with rounded apex, 2.8–3 mm long × 1.3–2 mm wide, the inner three oblong with a narrower apex, 2.6–2.9 mm long × 0.9–1.4 mm wide; stamens 9, glabrous; connective not prolonged; first and second whorl with 4 introrse-ventral locules, in a narrow arc, filaments 0.4–0.6 mm, glabrous, anthers broadly elliptic (twice as wide as the filaments), 0.7–1 mm long; third whorl with two almost lateral upper locules and two lower lateral-ventral locules, filaments 0.9–1.2 mm long, anthers 0.6–0.9 mm long, anthers oblong, 1.5 times wider than the filaments; locules opening towards the outer upper side; fourth whorl of filiform staminodes, slightly wider toward acute apex, about 0.9 mm long, ½–⅓ the size of the stamens, glabrous or with sparse hairs at the base; glands 6, yellow, attached to the base of filaments of third whorl; ovary ovoid, glabrous; receptacle urceolate, glabrous inside. Fruit unknown.

Distribution: — Ocotea granulosa has been registered on the northeast flank of the Ecuadorian Andes, in humid or very humid forests, between 2300 and 2500 m, where other Lauraceae abound. It grows associated with Nectandra obtusata Rohwer (1993b: 111) , Juglans neotropica Diels (1906: 398) and Cedrela montana Moritz ex Turczaninov (1858: 415) .

Phenology: —The three collections examined in QCNE and MO were collected with flowers between December and February.

State of conservation: — Ocotea granulosa is known only from three collections from the eastern flanks of the Ecuadorian Andes, in the provinces of Pichincha and Carchi. Between these two provinces is the Cayambe-Coca National Park, and to the South are other state protected areas with large forest areas, which make it likely that the species is not endangered.

Etymology: —The name of the species refers to the presence of blackish granules on buds, terminal twigs and young leaves (especially on the underside).

Taxonomic relationship: —Some characteristics of O. granulosa correspond to the Nectandra coriacea group ( Rohwer 1993b), which was recently recognized as a separate genus, Damburneya Rafinesque (1838: 136 ; see Trofimov et al. 2016). These characteristics include bisexual flowers, filaments much narrower than the anthers and anthers apically rounded to truncate; however, the anthers locules arranged in a narrow arc (first and second whorl) or in two pairs (third whorl) locate the new species in Ocotea . Species of Nectandra (Rolander ex Rottbøll 1778: 279) s.str. have anthers with a prolonged triangular apex or at least an apiculate tip, whereas this is never found in the N. coriacea group ( Trofimov et al. 2016).

Ocotea granulosa is closely related to O. pautensis van der Werff (2013: 359) . The differences between these two species are the indumentum ( O. granulosa with dense strigulose indumentum combined with granular, and amorphous and blackish granules vs. dense velutinous indumentum on the lower leaf surface and inflorescences of O. pautensis ) and the type of inflorescences ( O. granulosa with 3–6 panicles arranged beneath the terminal bud, or in the axils of cataphylls at the base of new growth vs. panicles in the axils of foliage leaves along the recent growth in O. pautensis ). The flowers of O. granulosa are bisexual, like many species of the genus.

The specimen Palacios 9628 (QCNE!, MO) was previously determined by H. van der Werff as Nectandra obtusata Rohwer , however, the analysis of the floral and vegetative morphology determines that it corresponds to the new species.

The insertion of the inflorescence on the branch of O. granulosa can be seen in some species of N. coriacea group, but also in some species of Ocotea , such as O. multinervis van der Werff (2003: 353–354) .

Additional specimens examined (paratypes): — ECUADOR. Napo: Quijos, Baeza-Cuyuja , 77°58’W, 0°23’S, 2400 m, Jan 1992, fl., Palacios et al. 9628, ( QCNE!, MO!) ; Dec 2007, fl., Palacios 16364 ( MO!) .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Ocotea granulosa. A. bark, B. underside of the leaf (note the amorphous granular excretions) (scale bar = 1.4 cm), C. base of the underside of the lamina (scale bar = 1.8 cm), and D. habit, E. flower (scale bar = 1 mm). Images from type collection (Palacios 17235).

FIGURE 5. Ocotea granulosa. Holotype QCNE 241220, Palacios 17235.