Lepanthes cordillerana E.Restrepo, J.S.Moreno & Gal.-Tar.

Parra-Sánchez, Edicson, Restrepo, Eugenio, Alegría-Valencia, Melisa, Moreno, Juan Sebastián & Galindo-Tarazona, Robinson, 2023, Lepanthes cordillerana (Orchidaceae) a new species and the landscape threats to its wild populations, Phytotaxa 603 (1), pp. 69-80 : 71-77

Lepanthes cordillerana E.Restrepo, J.S.Moreno & Gal.-Tar. , sp. nov. ( Figures 1–2 ).

Type:— COLOMBIA. Valle del Cauca: Municipio de Cali. Parque Nacional Natural Farallones de Cali. Predio La Yolanda. 2336m, 9 May 2020, R. Galindo-Tarazona, P. Alzate & M. Espitia 1454 (holotype: CUVC!) .

Lepanthes cordillerana is most similar to L. teres but distinguished by the ciliated margins of the leaf (vs. entire, smooth), the lower lobe of the petals, which is oblong-acute, (vs. considerably smaller than the lower lobe, narrowly triangular,) and the appendix capitate, cuneate basally, apically caved, and villose (vs. subspherical, bilobed, accommodated in a cavity in the sinus).

Description: —Epiphytic herb, caespitose, suberect to horizontal, from 3–6 cm tall. Roots slender, subflexuous, up to 0.15 cm in diameter. Ramicauls enclosed by 3–7 lepanthiform sheaths minutely ciliate, with a ciliate, acuminate, and dilated and ostia, 2.0– 4.5 cm long. Leaves erect to horizontal, suffused with purple abaxially, heavily coriaceous to semiterete, lanceolate-acute, 1.69–2.50 × 0.50–0.90 cm, the apex attenuate, emarginate, margin ciliate; the cuneate base narrowing into a petiole 2.3–3.0 mm long. Inflorescence a congested, distichous, successively flowered raceme, up to 9.0 mm long, born at the abaxial side of the leaf by a filiform peduncle 3 mm long; floral bracts obconic, ciliate, acuminate, 0.60 mm long; pedicels 0.72–0.81 mm long. Pedicellate ovary carinated, glabrous, 2.43 mm long. Flowers with dorsal sepal red-purple, translucent at the margins, lateral sepals cream-yellow, hyaline, with a red macula at the external middle, petals cream coloured, suffused with magenta-red towards the margins, lip cream-yellow, the blades marginally suffused with red-purple, column red. Sepals elliptical-ovate, acute, carinate abaxially, densely ciliated at the margins. Dorsal sepal 3-veined, 4.51 × 2.84 mm. Lateral sepals 2-veined, connate 1 mm at the base, 2.30–2.34 × 3.69–3.77 mm. Petals transversely bilobed, microscopically pubescent, 1.19–1.26 × 4.36–4.44 mm, the upper lobe oblong with the apex rounded, the lower lobe oblong-acute, apex obtuse; lip bilaminate, the blades oblong, 2.50 × 0.85 mm each, the apex rounded, abundantly long ciliated at the apex, the base rounded, the connectives short, cuneate, the body broad, connate to the base of the column, the appendix capitate, cuneate basally, apically caved, and villose; column 2.29 mm long, anther cap dorsal, 0.48 mm wide, stigma ventral. pollinia two, yellow, pyriform, 0.46 mm long.

Distribution and ecology:— Lepanthes cordillerana has been found in all three Andean Cordilleras in Colombia. Specifically, in the departments of Antioquia (municipality of Urrao and Medellin), Boyacá (Soatá), Cundinamarca (Guasca) and Valle del Cauca (Farallones national Park in Cali; Figure 3 ). The species elevational range goes from 2059 to 2950 m in elevation. We obtained a census of two populations in one of the five localities where the species was recorded. In Soata, the population size varies between 28 and 173 adult individuals in two 300 m 2 plots in the same forest plot (see sampling in Parra-Sanchez et al. 2023). Plants of the new species were found growing as epiphytes up to 2 meters above ground on trees and lianas heavily covered by moss. Populations have been registered at the border of the road, and inside forests with dense canopy cover ( Figure 3 ).

Etymology:— The specific epithet refers to the Andean Mountain ranges where the populations were found distributed which origins, geology and orography is one of the main drivers of high diversity to Colombia.

Additional specimens (paratypes):— COLOMBIA. Boyacá: Soatá. Cloud forest near road to Onzaga , 2692m, 16 Nov 2019, Edicson Parra-Sanchez 2512 ( VALLE [spirit]!). Antioquia: Urrao, Vereda Santa Isabel , Sector La Mina, RN Bosque de Agua 2500 m., 2 Oct 2021, Esteban Dominguez 2700 ( JAUM!) .

Other specimens:— COLOMBIA. Cundinamarca: municipio de Guasca, vereda Pastor Ospina . 2900m. Apr. 2020 (Digital voucher) . Antioquia: Municipality of Medellín, Reserva Baldías , 2010 m (Digital voucher) .

Landscape-scale context results:— Our results show that the species’ wild populations dwell in highly preserved as well as in low forested cover areas (between 27–78% at 2400 m radius), a wide range of forest fragmentation (43– 220 fragments), but high edge density (58–88 ha of forest area is exposed to the edge; Figure 4 ). The site with the best landscape-scale context is Farallones, as the only wild population inside a protected area (<80% forest cover). Whilst the landscape context in Guasca shows the higher modification of the landscape, with the lowest levels of forest cover and high fragmentation at the largest spatial scale with 28% forest cover, and 220 forest fragments scattered across the largest analysed landscape (2400 m radius). Populations in Astilleros and Urrao show an intermediate level of forest cover (36.6% and 54.5%), and forest fragmentation (118 and 127 forest fragments at 2500 m radius), within the calculated variation in our study.

Taxonomic Discussion:—We proposed the new entity based on morphological traits as well as distributional features. L. cordillerana ( Figure 2A ) is similar to several other Colombian and Ecuadorian Lepanthes species, especially L. teres ( Figure 2B ), from which it is closely related in plant shape and general flower morphology, but can be easily distinguished by the ciliated margins of the leaf (vs. entire, smooth), the densely ciliated margins of the dorsal sepal (vs. entire), the lower lobe of the petals, which is oblong-acute, obtuse (vs. considerably smaller than the lower lobe, narrowly triangular, obtuse) and the appendix capitate, cuneate basally, apically caved, villose (vs. subspherical, bilobed, accommodated in a cavity in the sinus). In the same way, it shares some similarities with L. intonsa Luer (1983: 348) ( Figure 2C ) but can be easily distinguished by leaf thickness, heavily coriaceous-semiterete (vs. thinly coriaceous), leaf shape and margins, lanceolate-acute, ciliated (vs. ovate-acuminate, smooth) and petal lobes shape, the upper lobe oblong with the apex rounded, the lower lobe oblong-acute, apex obtuse (vs. upper lobe oblong, apically rounded, the lower lobe smaller, oblique, obtuse, the outer margin deeply indented at the junction of the lobes), the lip blades, which are oblong, the apex rounded, abundantly long ciliated at the apex (oblong-obovate, concave, with both ends rounded, sparsely long ciliated at the apical part) and the stigma, entire (vs. bilobed). Additionally, it is florally similar to L. jubata Luer (1983: 350) ( Figure 2D ) but easily distinguished by the lanceolate-acute, smooth margined leaf (vs. ovate, acuminate, undulate margined) and petal lobes, the upper lobe oblong, the apex rounded, the lower lobe oblong-acute, the apex obtuse (vs. both lobes oblong, the upper lobe longer, the apexes obtuse, diverging). Finally, it is similar to L. protuberans Luer & H.R. Jesup (1996: 142) ( Figure 2E ), but easily distinguished by the lip blades shape and lenght, which are oblong, the apex rounded, abundantly long ciliated at the apex, 2.50 × 0.85 mm each (vs. ciliate anteriorly, the laminae oblong, with the apices and bases rounded, l.0 × 0.45 mm each) and the body with an capitate, cuneate basally, apically caved, villose appendix (vs. body protuberant, appendix absent). All species mentioned above were sorted in a comparison table which helps for determining main differences between the morphologically closely related species ( Table 1 ).

Landscape-scale Context Discussion:—We found a new species that unlike many others in the genus has a wide geographical and elevational range. Lepanthes species are highly geographically restricted in Colombia, with 79.1% of species endemic to the country and over 215 species (72.2% of the total species pool) reported in less than five records with less than 500 m elevation range ( Luer & Thoerle 2012). However, the populations of L. cordillerana dwell in the three cordilleras along areas both in high and low levels of forest cover and fragmentation. The landscape-scale context along with local-scale observations shows preference of the species for forest sites. Our results describe the current situation of the species’ populations and the potential risk product of human modification of the landscape, but we lack information to fully understand the extent of impact of these landscape processes to populations. Nonetheless, the species’ wide distribution is constrained by the availability of forests in the landscape which makes it susceptible to deforestation.

Our findings draw attention to the need to discover species and to report the conservation status that the populations are undergoing. Our methods are far from perfect, as landscape scale analyses are spatially and temporally dependent ( Bolliger et al. 2007, Jackson & Fahrig 2015), and thus we call for caution in addressing or extrapolating our results to other taxa or ecosystems. We found that only one population dwells inside a protected area with high levels of forest cover and low levels of fragmentation and edge effects. In contrast, most populations reside in unprotected areas, fragmented landscapes (118–220 forest fragments at 2400 m radius), and two of these wild populations are surrounded by a matrix of human-modified habitats with dangerously low levels of forest cover (<40% forest cover at 2400 m radius). The forest cover required to ensure the future for many plant and animal species across human-modified landscapes has been estimated to be 40%, and even more in biodiversity hotspots such as the Northern Andes ( Arroyo‐Rodríguez et al. 2020, Pérez-Escobar et al. 2022). Our study aligns with the current trend in Andean natural landscapes where only 38% of its original estimated area remains ( Rodríguez-Eraso et al. 2013). Thus, the landscape characterizations at the population level allow the detection of the potential risks at each location so conservation actions can be deployed accordingly at the spatial scale that poses the highest risk.

The threats we found here at the landscape scale can magnify or modulate other inherent features to Lepanthes species. For instance, many Lepanthes species show a restricted distribution, clustered and asymetrically distributed inside forests ( Kindlmann et al. 2014, Moreno et al. 2022, Pupulin et al. 2010), albeit widespread species are also present ( Luer & Thoerle 2012, Moreno et al. 2020). In general, Lepanthes species present a rather short dispersal kernels (4.8 m from the mother plant), with an estimated one successful plant growing per generation out of ~2000 seeds ( Tremblay 1997). Population process is driven mainly by asymmetric connectivity, interactions with moss area, and mortality driven by dry conditions ( Acevedo et al. 2020). This combination of inherent traits poses a huge question on the future of Lepanthes species with narrow geographical ranges. In the current environmental crisis, habitat loss and climate change together are the main drivers of species threats. On top of the landscape threats we found, the projected warming scenario across elevational gradients, temperature raises impacting seed establishment as humidity and moss availability might become scarcer, jointly with asymmetric dispersion and short dispersion ( Fernández et al. 2003, Kindlmann et al. 2014, Tremblay 1997), it is expected that local extinction would increase as the variability in temperatures also escalates, implying that Lepanthes species would struggle to cope with climate change and therefore to disperse to locations with adequate conditions exacerbating the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation ( Acevedo et al. 2020).

Conservation status:—The species was found across the three Colombian mountain ranges which makes us infer that the species’ distribution is larger than the distribution reported here. However, we believe this is a result of an intrinsic cryptic growing habit of many Lepanthes , narrow geographical distribution ( Luer & Thoerle 2012), and the high difficulty in identifying herbaria material which resonates in the complex taxonomy within the group (Moreno unpublished data). Thus, until further populations are reported, we suggest this species needs to be of conservation concern based on the narrow elevation gradient (2010–2900 m), few localities (5 localities), and the risk across the majority of wild populations dwelling in unprotected areas with highly modified landscapes. Our results could be used to make a robust risk assessment of this species following international criteria such the International Union for conservation of nature ( IUCN 2020).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Illustration of Lepanthes cordillerana E.Restrepo, J.S.Moreno & Gal.-Tar. A. Habit. B. Flower C. Dissected perianth. D. Lip, lateral view. E. Expanded lip. F. pollinia and anther cap. Drawn by Sebastian Moreno from the plant that served as type (R. Galindo- Tarazona, P. Alzate & M. Espitia 1454).

FIGURE 2. Species comparison. A. Lepanthes cordillerana E.Restrepo, J.S.Moreno & Gal.-Tar. B. Lepanthes teres Luer. C. Lepanthes intonsa Luer. D. Lepanthes jubata Luer. E. Lepanthes protuberans Luer & R.P.Jesup. Photographs by Robinson Galindo-Tarazona (A), Luis Baquero (B). Sebastián Moreno (C, D) and Gerrit Verhellen (E). Prepared by Eugenio Restrepo.

FIGURE 3. Distribution map of Lepanthes cordillerana E.Restrepo, J.S.Moreno & Gal.-Tar. and landscape-scale context of five populations. Green dots represent the recorded populations and digital elevation model from black 0–1000 m to light gray at 3500–5700 m in elevation. Insets show forest cover (dark green) and the matrix (light gray), white buffers depict the 10 landscape sizes where we calculated the habitat loss and configuration metrics. Prepared by Edicson Parra.

FIGURE 4. Landscape-scale context analysis of Lepanthes cordillerana E.Restrepo, J.S.Moreno & Gal.-Tar. across the three Colombian Andean cordilleras. The boxplots show the median value, the 25th and 75th percentile range for locality (n= 5) across the 10 landscape size (100–2400 m radius). The circular dots represent the outliers in observed records of compositional turnover at each sampled plot.Each boxplot depicts A. Forest cover (percent of forest cover), B. fragmentation (number of patches in a landscape), and C. edge density (total length of forest edge divided by landscape size) context on each population. Prepared by Edicson Parra.

Tables

TABLE 1. Comparison between Lepanthes cordillerana E.Restrepo, J.S.Moreno & Gal.-Tar. and related species (in alphabetic order).

Character	L. cordillerana	L. intonsa	L. jubata	L. protuberans	L. teres
Leaves	Erect to horizontal,	Erect, thinly	Erect to suberect,	Erect, thickly	Erect, fleshy,
	heavily coriaceous,	coriaceous, ovate,	coriaceous, ovate,	coriaceous, narrowly	narrowly ovoid,
	lanceolate-acute,	acuminate, acute.	acuminate, margins	elliptical, acute.	terete, smooth
	apex attenuate,		smooth or minutely		margined.
	emarginate, margin		denticulate
	ciliate.
Petals	Cream, suffused	Yellow, suffused	Whitish internally,	Greenish white,	Light yellow with red
	with magenta-red,	with orange,	suffused with	with red border,	margins, transversely,
	transversely bilobed,	microscopically	red externally,	microscopically	dolabriform,
	microscopically	pubescent,	transversely oblong,	pubescent,	the upper lobe
	pubescent, the upper	transversely oblong,	bilobed, both lobes	transversely	oblong with the
	lobe oblong with the	the upper lobe	obtuse, the upper	bilobed, the lobes	apex rounded, the
	apex rounded, the	oblong, apically	longer.	subtriangular, about	lower lobe smaller,
	lower lobe oblong-	rounded and the		equally long, the	narrowly triangular,
	acute, apex obtuse.	smaller, oblique,		apices rounded.	obtuse.
		obtuse lower lobe.
Lip and	Cream-yellow, the	Reddish, the blades	Reddish, the blades	Rose, pubescent,	Yellow with red
appendix	blades marginally	oblong-obovate,	oblong, oblique, the	ciliate anteriorly,	margins, blades
	suffused with red,	concave, the apical	margins with straight	the laminae oblong,	oblong, the
	bilaminate, oblong,	margin long ciliated,	hairs, the connectives	with the apices and	apex ciliate, the
	the apical margin	the connectives	rectangular,	bases rounded, the	connectives short,
	abundantly long	oblong, elongated,	erect, lifting the	connectives broadly	cuneate, the appendix
	ciliated at the apex,	lifting the appendix	blades above the	oblong, oblique,	a subspherical,
	the connectives short,	straplike, sigmoid	column, the body	protuberant body,	bilobed body
	cuneate, the body	in the lateral	broad, the sinus	the apex minimally	accommodated in a
	broad, connate to the	view, pubescent,	broadly rounded	retuse without an	cavity in the sinus.
	base of the column,	terminating in a small	and protruding	appendix.
	the appendix capitate,	gland, hinged to the	with a minute,
	cuneate basally,	sinus.	pedunculated,
	apically caved,		bilobed appendix
	villose.